Cloquet Council adopts hazard plan

During Tuesday’s meeting, Cloquet city councilors unanimously adopted the Carlton County all-hazard mitigation plan, which was already approved by the state of Minnesota and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Carlton County emergency management director Marlyn Halverson answered council questions about the plan, which has been under development for the past 18 months and will serve for the next five years once every city and township in the county has adopted it.

Asked how many people worked on it, Halverson said “a boatload.”

The report outlined multiple hazards — flooding, wildfires, windstorms, tornadoes, winter storms, severe cold, hail, dam or levee failure — and looked at the history, probability, climate change projection, vulnerability and program gaps and deficiencies for each.

It included six mitigation projects for Cloquet, with the goal of getting funding for those. Those projects included:

Ongoing education/awareness for severe weather, winter and summer storms;

Obtaining additional equipment to maintain roads;

Generators to support infrastructure, in particular lift stations for water;

Planning better infrastructure for flooding events;

Updating the city’s storm sewer plan.

Once the plan is adopted by all jurisdictions, Halvorson said the public portions would be posted to the county’s emergency management website.