In consultation with local municipalities, districts, and other community organizations, the Southern Sandoval County Arroyo Flood Control Authority is developing a stand-alone hazard mitigation plan tailored to its specific needs. This plan is designed to reduce the risks posed by natural hazards that affect the Authority and is required to maintain eligibility for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) hazard mitigation funding.
What is hazard mitigation?
“Hazard Mitigation” involves identifying actions to reduce long-term risks from hazards like wildfires, droughts, floods, and severe storms. These mitigation actions can include any measures, projects, plans, or activities that help to reduce or eliminate current and future hazard vulnerabilities.
The most effective approach is a comprehensive, long-term plan developed before disasters occur. Following disasters, repairs often restore structures and infrastructure to their pre-disaster states, leading to repeated damage from future hazard events. Hazard mitigation breaks this cycle by creating less vulnerable conditions through strategic actions.
Mitigation benefits
Mitigation is an investment in a community’s future safety and resiliency. Recent studies have demonstrated that mitigation is cost-effective for communities, with mitigation projects returning $6 for every $1 invested. Mitigation planning enables communities to take proactive measures before a hazard event occurs, thereby reducing the impacts of a future disaster. Consider the critical importance of mitigation to:
• Protect public safety and prevent loss of life and injury
• Reduce harm to existing and future development
• Maintain community continuity after a disaster
• Prevent damage to our community’s unique economic, cultural, and environmental assets
• Reduce the costs of disaster response and recovery and the exposure to risk for first responders.
Mitigation plan benefits
Advantages of having a FEMA-approved hazard mitigation plan include:
• Ensuring eligibility for all sources of hazard mitigation funds made available through FEMA.
• Increasing public awareness and understanding of hazards and support for mitigation actions.
• Ensuring Authority policies, programs, and goals are compatible with reducing vulnerability to all hazards.
• Building partnerships with diverse stakeholders.
• Expanding the understanding of potential risk reduction measures.
• Informing the development, prioritization, and implementation of mitigation projects.