Hazard Mitigation Plan still in development

The document detailing measures to lessen the vulnerability of public buildings and infrastructure to natural disasters continues to wend its way through a lengthy compilation and review process.

Completing the Hazard Mitigation Plan will qualify the county for federal money to retrofit public buildings and infrastructure against natural hazards. The Federal Emergency Management Agency releases the money after a disaster declaration, but mitigation funds aren't related to response-and-recovery aid FEMA issues in the wake of a disaster.

A FEMA-approved mitigation plan isn't required for the individual and public assistance the state's congressional delegation requested last week in its letter to President Barack Obama. Garland was one of 33 counties included in the president's disaster declaration for damage caused by last month's severe weather, which County Judge Rick Davis said washed out county roads in more than 60 locations.

"The (Hazard Mitigation Plan) is specifically for retrofitting buildings that get hit repetitively or retrofitting a bridge that's getting washed out repetitively and building it back and building it back better," said Delila Welch, program manager for the West Central Arkansas Planning and Development District.

"There are different phases in emergency management. Mitigation is its own phase. Response is its own phase. Recovery is its own phase."

FEMA awarded the county a $19,000 grant last year to replace the 2009 Hazard Mitigation Plan that expired last year. A federal statute conditions receipt of disaster-preparedness grants on states and local governments having a FEMA-approved Hazard Mitigation Plan.

The director of the county's department of emergency management, Bo Robertson, told the county Finance Committee last month that four schools contributed $2,500 each, leaving the county $6,000 short of the $16,000 the grant requires from local sources.

Robertson told the committee he'd solicit contributions from the schools that have yet to donate. All of the $35,000 appropriated for the plan has to be spent before FEMA will pay the federal share, Welch said.

School safe rooms, capable of withstanding winds of up 250 mph, are a product of the 2009 plan, Karen Barlow, Welch's predecessor, said last year. Many of the schools used their own budgets to make the shelters dual-use facilities, such as gymnasiums or band rooms.

Cutter Morning Star and Mountain Pine are the only county school districts without safe rooms, Barlow said last year.

WCAPPD Executive Director Dwayne Pratt said the $35,000 pays for time and resources his office expends compiling the plan.

"The money is based on staff time, travel and holding public meetings," he said. "It's based on our historical experience. It's actually quite a bargain. One of our member counties got an estimate from a private sector consultant to complete this plan, and he was going to charge them $100,000."

The federal grant will reimburse part of the $25,000 the Finance Committee transferred last month from the county's Ouachita Memorial Hospital Sale Fund to pay for the plan.

The mitigation plan also qualifies the county for Pre-Disaster Mitigation and Flood Mitigation Assistance funds that are appropriated annually and aren't contingent on a disaster declaration.

"It's very competitive," Welch said of the PDM and FMA programs. "Communities submit their projects and an explanation why they need them."

Welch said the plan is in the risk assessment and critical facilities phase, the fifth in an eight-phase progression. It uses damage reports from previous disasters to gauge the probability and severity of future disasters and inventories buildings and infrastructure vital to county operations.

"We're gathering the inventory of all our buildings and other infrastructure that can be damaged by flood, tornado or thunderstorms," Welch said. "Government buildings, such as police stations, emergency operations centers, hospitals, schools -- these are our primary focus, because we do consider them critical assets."

A local planning committee comprising representatives from schools, municipal areas and the county met last fall to develop strategies for reducing disaster-related human costs and property damage. The 13 local stakeholders identified in the plan have to participate in its development, either directly or through correspondence, to qualify for mitigation funds.

Remaining steps are creating an action plan based on information compiled by the planning committee and risk assessment, having a procedure for tracking the plan's effectiveness and updating it every five years and approval from the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management and FEMA.

The law allows up to three years to form a plan, but Barlow said last year that the ADEM and FEMA reviews can take up to a year.

Local on 07/03/2015

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