County Hazard Mitigation Plans

The Council of Governments entered into agreements with the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) for professional planning services to update three existing Hazard Mitigation Plans (HMP) during this fiscal year.

The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act of 1988 (as amended by the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000), requires that after November 1, 2004, as a condition for local governments to receive federal disaster funds, they must have in place an adopted Hazard Mitigation Plan.

The plan must include the process for identifying hazards, assessing risks and vulnerabilities and identifying and prioritizing mitigation actions.  Public involvement of local units of government, public agencies and the private sector is a large part of the planning process.  The development of the initial plans for the region began in 2003, with updates to many of the plans now underway.

Due to extreme risks of flooding and other given natural disasters, the Counties of Marion, Pike and Ralls were among the first counties in the state to be requested to prepare plan updates.  SEMA is providing 75% of the costs associated with the updates in the form of a grant, while the remaining 25% is provided by the local governments.

The Council of Governments entered into an agreement with a consultant to prepare the updates to the plans for the counties of Marion, Pike and Ralls.  At this point in time, the plans have been submitted to SEMA for review and any necessary modifications. Final approval will be given by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  The remaining counties in the region will be slated for updates at a later time.

This process is extremely important in order for counties to remain eligible for federal disaster assistance.