County Hazard Mitigation Plans
Are available for review for Counties throughout the EMCOG region.
In partnership with the East Michigan region, EMCOG staff has prepared hazard mitigation plans for many counties in its region (Arenac, Clare, Gladwin, Iosco, Isabella, Ogemaw, Roscommon and Sanilac). The Disaster Mitigation Act (DMA) of 2000 included requirements for hazard mitigation planning. The DMA required that local hazard mitigation plans meet the requirements of the act and be in place by November 2004 and be current thereafter. In order to become eligible for hazard mitigation grant program funds in the future, counties must prepare and have an active hazard mitigation plan in place.
The intent of a hazard mitigation plan is to inventory possible hazards, assess what hazards the community is vulnerable to, and to provide possible mitigation activities for those hazards. Every county in the region currently has an emergency management plan that addresses emergency action guidelines. The focus of the hazard mitigation plan is the development of projects and policies that can be implemented to reduce or prevent losses from future disasters.
Mitigation Plans form the foundation for a community's long-term strategy to reduce disaster losses and break the cycle of disaster damage, reconstruction, and repeated damage. The planning process is as important as the plan itself. It creates a framework for risk-based decision making to reduce damages to lives, property, and the economy from future disasters. Hazard Mitigation is sustained action taken to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to people and their property from hazards.
State, Indian Tribal, and local governments are required to develop a hazard mitigation plan as a condition for receiving certain types of non-emergency disaster assistance. Information on applying for FEMA grants can be found at the FEMA Mitigation Assistance Programs website. Included on this website is information on the three grant programs available from FEMA. These programs are the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program, and the Flood Mitigation Assistance Grant Program. However grant funds for any projects identified in the Plan are not limited to FEMA funds. Local funds, state funds, Homeland Security Grants, and Emergency Management funds are some of the other forms of funding that can be used for projects.
EMCOG works closely with the Hazard Advisory Committees or the Local Planning Teams (LPT) in the East Michigan Region to develop the plan and received input from community leaders, stakeholders and concerned citizens throughout the planning process.
Other important links are found below.