Sumner staff begin 2025 hazard-mitigation plan update, flag battery storage as emerging risk

Sumner’s Emergency Management and Safety Coordinator Evan Brazitas told the City Council at a Feb. 24 study session that the city is preparing an update to its hazard-mitigation plan required every five years by federal emergency management rules.

The plan update will collect local data and an annex for Sumner and then be submitted with other jurisdictions’ addenda to Pierce County, which compiles a regional document for the state and FEMA. "Federal regulations from FEMA state that we need to do this every five years," Brazitas said, adding the process is necessary to maintain eligibility for post-disaster grant reimbursements.

Brazitas said staff are revising sections of the plan and will focus this cycle on newly relevant risks and community priorities. He identified battery energy storage systems (BESS) — both large commercial installations and smaller residential units — as a hazard the city expects to add to its risk assessment, and said Sumner will record that risk in the plan’s…