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1. What is hazard mitigation?

Natural hazards have the potential to cause property loss, loss of life, economic hardship, and threats to public health and safety. While an important aspect of emergency management deals with disaster recovery, those actions that a community must take to repair damages and make itself whole in the wake of a natural disaster, an equally important aspect of emergency management involves hazard mitigation. Hazard mitigation measures are efforts taken before a disaster happens to lessen the impact that future disasters of that type will have on people and property in the community. They are things you do today to be more protected in the future. 

Hazard mitigation actions taken in advance of a hazard event are essential to breaking the typical disaster cycle of damage, reconstruction, and repeated damage. With careful selection, hazard mitigation actions can be long-term, cost-effective means of reducing the risk of loss and help create a more disaster-resistant and sustainable community.

2. What is a hazard mitigation plan?

A Hazard Mitigation Plan is a well-organized and well-documented evaluation of the hazards that a jurisdiction is susceptible to, and the extent to which these events will occur. Hazard Mitigation Plans identify an area’s vulnerability to the effects of the natural hazards typically present in a certain area, as well as the goals, objectives, and actions required for minimizing future loss of life and property damage as a result of hazard events. The primary purpose of mitigation planning is to systematically identify policies, actions, and tools that can be used to implement those actions.

3. Why prepare a Hazard Mitigation Plan?

• Eligibility to apply for Federal aid for technical assistance and certain types of pre and post disaster project funding (i.e. project grants under Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation (HMGP competitive state-wide after a Federal disaster declaration); FEMA's Pre-Disaster Mitigation competitive program (PDMC) (competitive nationwide, annual appropriation)
• Leads to judicious selection of risk reduction actions
• Contributes to more sustainable and disaster-resistant communities through selecting the most appropriate mitigation measures, based on the knowledge gained in the hazard identification and loss estimation process
• Builds partnerships
• Establishes priorities before disaster strikes
• Improves the safety and economic well-being of constituents
• Mitigation actions identified during the planning process can reduce the costs of a disaster
• It simply costs too much to address the efforts of disasters only after they happen
• State and Federal aid is often insufficient to cover the extent of physical and economic damages resulting from disasters
• A surprising amount of damage from hazards can be prevented by taking the time to anticipate where and how they occur
• Planning can lessen the impact and speed the overall response and recovery processes
• Hazard mitigation can be incorporated as an integral component of daily business
• Allows participants to focus their efforts on the hazard areas most important to them by incorporating the concept of determining and setting priorities for mitigation efforts

4. Why participate in a Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Planning Process?

• Can save money by providing a forum for engaging in partnerships that could provide technical, financial, and/or staff resources in your effort to reduce the effects, and hence the costs, of hazards
• Small jurisdictions can benefit from the additional resources and expertise that collaboration can bring
• Multi-jurisdictional hazard mitigation plans are practical for addressing issues best dealt with on a larger scale, which do not recognize political boundaries
• Takes advantage of existing planning mechanisms, such as regional  planning organizations
• Creates economies of scale and enables pooling of limited resources