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<br />_. <br /> <br />.- <br /> <br />.- <br /> <br />a. <br /> <br />Loss of Life Damages <br /> <br />The dollar amount associated with loss of life prevented by the project were <br />estimated by: (a) assigning a value tot he loss of one life; (b) predicting the <br />number ofIives lost during flood events, and (c) predicting the number of <br />lives saved by the project. The value assigned to the loss of one life was <br />determined to be $2.2 million. This value was obtained from information <br />provided by Mr. Ken Gottel, and economic consultant to FEMA who <br />specializes in benefit-to-cost analyses associated with flooding. The loss of <br />life attributable to future flooding within the City was predicted by <br />information obtained from historic flooding. flood protection provided by <br />existing facilities, and the potential and actual loss ofIife documented during <br />the flood of 1997. The number of lives saved by the project depended on the <br />level of improvements afforded by the project along with the judgement and <br />insight provided by Mr. Glenn Levy, Director for the Office of Emergency <br />Management. <br /> <br />Given the information described above, the dollar amount of "loss of life" <br />damages prevented by implementation of the project was estimated. This <br />information is summarized in Table 4. As indicated in Table 4, the <br />annualized reduction in damages associated with implementation of the <br />project is $638,000. <br /> <br />b. <br /> <br />Property Damages <br /> <br />Estimating the dollar amount of damages to property prevented by the project <br />involved a determination of: (a) the existing damages associated with <br />flooding within the City; and (b) the damages associated with flooding <br />following implementation of the proposed project. Existing property <br />damages were estimated with information available from the City's master <br />drainage plans and projections of damage savings with the early warning <br />system installed that was funded with HMGP money in 1998. <br /> <br />Existing property damage estimates were limited to the damages sustained by <br />commercial/residential structures and their contents. Structure damage <br />ranged from 15% to 17% of the value of the structure depending on the <br />severity of the flood and the inundation level. The total value of the contents <br />was assumed to be 50% ofthe structure value. Depending on the severity of <br />the flood and inundation level, the existing damage to contents ranged from <br />12% to 15% of the total content value, or 4% to 5% of the combined value <br />associated with the structure and the contents. <br /> <br />Damage estimates prevented by the project were based on the assumption <br />that the warning time would allow a reduction in the damage to the contents <br />of the flooded properties. The analyses assumed a 3% reduction in the losses <br />associated with contents. With construction of the project. damages to <br />contents were reduced to range from 9% to 12% of the total content value, or <br /> <br />24 <br />