Developing Better Hazard Mitigation Plans

Transcription

1 Developing Better Hazard Mitigation Plans Georgia Association of Floodplain Managers 9 th Annual Technical Conference Atlanta, GA March 26, 2014

2 Mitigation and Why We Plan Hazard Mitigation - Any sustained action taken to reduce or eliminate the long-term risk to human life and property from hazards. Disaster Mitigation Act 2000 Hazard Mitigation Grant Program Pre-Disaster Mitigation Flood Mitigation Assistance 2

3 Why Do We REALLY Plan? Want to remain eligible for the funding? Because someone told us it was our job? Want to help save lives and protect property? 3

4 How Can We Develop Better Plans? 1. Planning Process 2. Risk Assessment 3. Capability Assessment 4. Mitigation Strategy 5. Plan Maintenance 6. Documentation 4

5 CRS Floodplain Management Plans and Hazard Mitigation Plans More communities interested because of Biggert-Waters Who here has tied to two together? Up to 382 CRS points available for a hazard mitigation plan that addresses the 510 planning requirements GA Average 132 National Average 129 5

6 CRS Floodplain Management Plans and Hazard Mitigation Plans Involve the public If 50% of your planning team is comprised of members from the public - up to 60 pts available if certain criteria met Consider a Coordinating Committee for oversight and Work Groups for more detailed input 6

7 Conduct Better Public Outreach ONLINE Public Participation Survey Facebook Twitter 7

8 Facebook 8

9 Twitter 9

10 Results? Over 500 public surveys completed Marked increase over previous efforts 10

11 Organize Better Stakeholder Outreach Think outside the box Non-English speaking populations Citizens with disabilities Targeted stakeholder outreach Based on risk and vulnerability Citizens in floodplain Neighboring jurisdictions Academia Businesses with a stake in the community 11

12 Better Risk Assessments Data is getting better and better Georgia Flood Map Website Southern Wildfire Risk Assessment Integrate RiskMAP and irisk into plans 12

13 Georgia Flood Map 13

14 Improve Capabilities Recognize and capitalize on opportunities to improve capabilities to mitigation actions What are your communities gaps in capabilities? Administrative Technical Fiscal Political 14

15 Take Action! Implement your plan! Why go through the process if you aren t going to implement the plan? Don t rely solely on FEMA Mitigation Funds! Examples? CDBG NRCS 15

16 Cheap / Free Mitigation Activities Turn floodplain area into open space/parks Educate citizens about the use of rain barrels and rain gardens Install lightning rods/grounding on critical facilities Tree trimming around power lines Schedule regular inspection of power poles 16

17 Harvest Low-Hanging Fruit Focus on identifying and mitigating Vulnerable Critical Facilities Repetitive Loss and Severe Repetitive Loss Properties 17

18 Identifying Actions/Projects How does mitigation action begin? Risk Assessment: Helps identify problem areas Develop problem statements based on findings from risk assessment How do you identify problem areas? Mapping (GIS), Historic Occurrences How do you know where to devote your time/effort? Know your community s desires, know what projects will have political support, start with achievable projects 18

19 A Real Life Example Gaston County, North Carolina: Critical Facilities 19

20 Floodplain/Critical Facility Analysis Analysis revealed that a Volunteer Fire Department was located within the 100 year floodplain During Hazard Mitigation Planning Team meeting, this vulnerability was brought up and Emergency Management officials confirmed that the structure had been flooded in the past 20

21 Mitigation Fire Departments are a highly visible project and generally there is great support for protecting these facilities Hazard Mitigation Planning Team members followed up with state Emergency Management Division State officials are in the process of declaring a disaster and assessing where to use the concurrent mitigation funds Great opportunity for a remove/relocate project to protect critical services Funding outcome pending, but big takeaway is that now community is aware of a major vulnerability and is engaged and wants to take the issue on 21

22 Plan Updates Take time to review current actions and provide meaningful updates on those actions If actions aren t being implemented, what is needed to make them happen? Are goals achievable? Are actions implementable? It is OK to delete actions! Just explain why Make sure the mitigation strategy (goals and actions) are taking the community in a direction it wants to go! 22

23 Conclusion It is our professional duty to implement good plans Don t just go through the motions The success of the hazard mitigation program is up to us! 23

24 Resources FEMA GEMA Georgia Flood Map CRS RiskMAP 24

25 Questions? Nathan Slaughter, AICP, CFM Project Manager Atkins (919)