Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP)

While natural hazard events such as wildfire and flooding cannot be prevented, the development of a Hazard Mitigation Plan will evaluate the potential for future damaging events and work toward long-term solutions and strategies to help mitigate their impacts in the future. This long-term strategy also reduces future disaster losses by breaking the repeated cycle of disaster damage and reconstruction. According to a 2019 report by the National Institute of Building Sciences, it is estimated that for every $1 invested in hazard mitigation, an average of $6 is saved on long-term disaster response and recovery.

Hazard mitigation can reduce or eliminate the need for emergency response and greatly reduce the recovery period. Many types of mitigation actions are things done on a daily basis without much forethought such as purchasing insurance to protect a home investment, putting on your seatbelt, or putting in gutters around a roof to better direct rain runoff.  The same concepts apply to community-level hazard mitigation planning. Hazard Mitigation planning is a process for county, city, and local governments or special districts to identify community-level policies and actions that will reduce the impacts of natural hazards.

Thank you to those who participated in virtual public meetings, responded to the public input survey, reviewed the plan and provided comment, recommended mitigation strategies, and shared their concerns. We leveraged these public engagement opportunities to gather your input to help us better understand our vulnerabilities, your experiences, and to discuss opportunities to reduce the impacts of hazards before they occur in Jefferson County. Questions? Email [email protected].