NATURAL HAZARDS MITIGATION PLANNING

What is Hazard Mitigation?

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) defines hazard mitigation as, “any sustained action taken to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to life and property from natural hazards.” Another way to understand hazard mitigation is as the prevention component of the emergency management process.

• Preparedness activities are the emergency plans, training, drills, and exercises that individuals, communities and first responders participate in on almost daily basis. These are things done to get ready for an emergency or disaster before it happens.
• Response is the short-term, emergency actions taken to address the immediate impacts of a hazard.
• Recovery is the longer-term process of restoring the community back to normal or pre-disaster conditions.
• Mitigation activities are actions that will prevent or eliminate losses, even if an incident does occur. Mitigation can reduce or eliminate the need for an emergency response and greatly reduce the recovery period.

This may sound complicated, but we all do many of these things on a daily basis. Consider the example of a family taking their car on a road trip in the winter months. Examples of the hazards of highway travel might include vehicle breakdown, inclement weather, or a traffic crash.

• Preparedness activities would include purchasing auto insurance and keeping the policy current, maintaining the vehicle so it is in good operating condition, bringing warm clothes, jumper cables, and a shovel, and having a cell phone on the trip.
• Response activities might include putting on the warm clothes and using the cell phone to call for towing service if the vehicle breaks down or calling 911 if involved in crash.
• Recovery would be getting the vehicle repaired and back on the road after a breakdown or crash.
• Mitigation would be assuring that everyone in the vehicle wears their seatbelt while the vehicle is in motion. This is a specific action to assure that if a crash does occur, the occupants of the vehicle are protected and their risk of serious injury is reduced. Another example would be to cancel or postpone the trip if hazardous winter weather is imminent. This action would eliminate exposure to the risk altogether.

These same concepts apply to community level hazard mitigation planning. Mitigation planning is a process for county and local governments to identify community-level policies and actions that will reduce the impacts of natural hazards.

Why is Natural Hazard Mitigation Important?

Most people who live or work in the eastern Upper Peninsula have been affected by natural hazards in one way or another. Chippewa, Luce and Mackinac Counties and their residents are vulnerable to a variety of hazards including wildfires, severe winter weather, severe storms (high wind, lightning), and floods. These extreme weather events seem to be occurring more and more frequently, often with disastrous results. In fact, many experts believe that the heavy rains, strong thunderstorms, and tornadoes that struck the upper Midwest in the summer of 2008 are a sign of the future trends. The frequency and severity of future weather extremes is difficult to predict, but the trend seems clear.

Hazard Mitigation Plan

The rising costs associated with disaster response and recovery have focused the attention of federal, state, and local governments on addressing natural hazards before they occur. Obviously, torrential rains and tornadoes cannot be prevented from occurring. Planning for natural hazards and implementing mitigation measures, however, can reduce the impact of such events when they do occur. Emergency response and recovery costs can be reduced. Property damage and monetary losses can be reduced. Personal injury and loss of life can be reduced. The economic and social impact on the community as a whole can be reduced.

In 2005, EUPRP&DC collaborated with Chippewa, Luce and Mackinac Counties and 39 local units of government within the counties in a planning effort to develop a Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan for each county.

Building off of the framework of the previous plans, the EUPRP&DC is now working on a 5-Year Update. Information in this plan will be used to help guide and coordinate mitigation activities and decisions for local land use policy in the future. Proactive mitigation planning will help reduce the cost of disaster response and recovery to the community and its property owners by protecting critical community facilities, reducing liability exposure, and minimizing overall community impacts and disruption. The plan is intended as a plan of action, identifying a wide range of options to reduce the county’s vulnerability to natural hazards – before the next disaster occurs.