Hazard Mitigation Plan Approved by FEMA 2022-2027

The neighboring and local jurisdictions, stakeholders, and public were involved during the drafting phase of the hazard litigation plan and during the completion of the draft plan before it was adopted.

Information was disseminated to the communities and public through public meetings, news releases, and email. Representatives from Alpena County, the City of Alpena, and the Townships of Alpena, Green, Long Rapids, Maple Ridge, Ossineke, Sanborn, Wellington, and Wilson participated in updating the mitigation action and implementation strategies tables and reviewing the draft plan. Courtesy of (discovernortheastmichigan.org)

Throughout the world communities are impacted by natural, technological, and human-related hazards. Natural hazards occur when the natural processes of the environment interact with the resources and assets in the communities. These hazards include storms, floods, and wildfires. In 2018, the National Weather Service reported the United States experienced 530 fatalities, 1,378 injuries, $35,849,320,000 in property damage, and $5,102,540,000 in crop damage due to natural hazards. Technological hazards take place when the existing technology fails. These types of hazards include hazardous material spills,
structural fires, infrastructure failures, and transportation accidents. The final hazard, human-related, occurs as a product of human activities, such as chemical or biological attacks and cyber-attacks. Depending on many characteristics, such as geographical location and land use practices, these hazards have the potential to cause death, injuries, damage to property, infrastructure and the environment, and disruption to economic and social activities. These hazards also have the potential to become disasters. However, governments, organizations, businesses, and the public can reduce the impacts from hazards through hazard mitigation efforts.

Hazard mitigation planning allows communities to create long-term plans to reduce or eliminate the impacts that hazards have on the community’s population, economy, and natural environment. These plans identify and inventory potential hazards, assess the risks and vulnerabilities from hazards, and develop hazard mitigation strategies. Through plan preparation and mitigation efforts, communities are able to better protect public safety and facilities, remove structures from hazard prone areas, accelerate recovery time after disasters, increase hazard education and awareness, and create partnerships.