Hazard mitigation plan being updated

PRESCOTT – Every five years Nevada County, and the cities therein, are required to update a hazard mitigation plan.

Wednesday, Katie Hardy, with the Southwest Arkansas Planning and Development District, was at the Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce, to discuss what’s required and what’s being done locally. Normally, she said, work begins on updating the plan roughly three years into it as it takes about two years to complete. The county judge and mayors of all cities in the county are contacted to help out and address issues and areas of concern. In addition, the county’s citizens are also asked to participate and let the officials know about problems or potential hazards they’re concerned about. Hardy is working with both school districts, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office and the mayors on the plan.

There are four sections to the plan. First is meeting the requirements by defining the geographic areas of the county, who’s on the planning committee and the officials involved. Next is a definition of each city and school district in the plan, along  with resources available, such as water, electricity, sewer and phone service. The longest portion is part three, which outlines the hazard plan and which hazards are to be addressed. All natural disasters/hazards are included as are chemical hazards. The county, Hardy said, asked to have chemical hazards included because of the chemicals carried by trains and trucks in the county. Basically, the plan includes wildfires, floods, dam/levee failure, earthquakes, tornadoes, hail, severe thunderstorms and winter storms. All this is required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the county to qualify for federal hazard mitigation funds.

Hardy said the committee goes back to 1950 checking four or five databases, collating the information and seeing how often each type of hazard occurs, how much damage was done, loss of life involved, injuries and crop damage. All of this is tallied into a spreadsheet with tables created, separated by cities along with a city and county synopsis. It also looks at how to strengthen houses and publicly owned buildings in these areas with all involved informed of potential risks. A probability is created, which is also passed on to those involved.

The final requirement is the mitigation action strategy, or, basically, how the cities/county will respond to emergencies. Hardy said the numbers of incidents are examined, along with actions taken from the previous plan. The items needed to prevent or correct the situation are examined, along with a cost estimate and which grants can be applied for. These are all ranked on a scale of need. When all the information is complied, it’s sent to the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management (ADEM) for review. If needed, the ADEM will return the plan for corrections, review it again and when it’s approved pass it on the FEMA, where the process begins again. These plans also have to include flood-prone areas wildfire maps and general maps of the area.

Mary Godwin, EDO director, said the county’s citizens need to participate in the survey as part of the strategies. The EDO, she added, is helping with the survey and facilitating meetings.

Hardy said she’d like to have most of the survey done by the end of June or early July, adding the survey only takes a few minutes to complete. The survey includes a question asking if those taking it would like to be more involved in the process. Workshops can be done with the results presented to cities.

For more information, or to volunteer, email Hardy at Katie.Hardy@Ar.gov or Godwin at mgodwin@pnpartnership.org. Here is the link for the Nevada County Mitigation Survey.