FAQ

What is Hazard Mitigation?

Nassau County is susceptible to a number of different natural hazards. These natural hazards have the potential to cause property loss, loss of life, economic hardship, and threats to public health and safety. While an important aspect of emergency management deals with disaster recovery – those actions that a community must take to repair damages and make itself whole in the wake of a natural disaster – an equally important aspect of emergency management involves hazard mitigation. Hazard mitigation measures are efforts taken before a disaster happens to lessen the impact that future disasters of that type will have on people and property in the community. They are things you do today to be more protected in the future. Hazard mitigation actions taken in advance of a hazard event are essential to breaking the typical disaster cycle of damage, reconstruction, and repeated damage. With careful selection, hazard mitigation actions can be long-term, cost-effective means of reducing the risk of loss and help create a more disaster-resistant and sustainable community.

What is a Hazard Mitigation Plan?

A Hazard Mitigation Plan is a well-organized and documented evaluation of the hazards that a jurisdiction is susceptible to, and the extent to which these events will occur. Hazard Mitigation Plans identify an area's vulnerability to the effects of the natural hazards typically present in a certain area, as well as the goals, objectives, and actions required for minimizing future loss of life and property damage as a result of hazard events. The primary purpose of mitigation planning is to identify policies, actions, and tools that can be used to implement those actions. Mitigation planning has four steps: organizing resources, assessing risks, developing a mitigation plan, and implementing the plan and monitoring progress.

Why Prepare A Hazard Mitigation Plan?

  • Improves the safety of our residents by contributing to more sustainable, disaster-resistant communities.
  • Eligibility to apply for Federal aid for technical assistance and certain types of pre- and post-disaster project funding (i.e., project grants under FEMA 's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP, competitive state-wide after a Federal disaster declaration); FEMA's Pre Disaster Mitigation competitive program (PDMc, competitive nationwide, annual appropriation)).
  • Mitigation actions identified during the planning process can reduce the costs of a disaster.
  • A significant amount of damage from hazards can be prevented by taking the time to anticipate where and how they occur.
  • Planning can lessen the impact and speed the overall response and recovery processes.
  • Hazard mitigation can be incorporated as in integral component of daily business.
  • Allows participants to focus their efforts on the hazard areas most important to them by incorporation the concept of determining and setting priorities for mitigation planning efforts

Why Participate in a Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Planning Process?

  • Saves money by providing a forum for engaging in partnerships that could provide technical, financial, and/or staff resources in your effort to reduce the effects and the costs of hazards.
  • Smaller communities benefit from the additional resources that collaboration can bring.
  • Multi-jurisdictional hazard mitigation plans are practical for addressing issues best dealt with on a larger scale, which do not recognize political boundaries.
  • Takes advantage of existing planning mechanisms, such as regional planning organizations.