All-Hazard Mitigation Plan

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All Hazard Mitigation Plan

See the Draft Mitigation Plan Below!

Background Information

The federal government recently mandated that all states and local governments must have DMA 2000 consistent hazard mitigation plans approved by FEMA by November 1, 2004 to maintain eligibility for certain types of federal disaster assistance funding, such as pre-disaster and post-disaster funding. On October 30, 2000, the President signed into law the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA 2000). In February 2002, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) published Interim Final Rule 44 CFR Part 201 which modified the original act.

What is Mitigation?

The FEMA definition: "Acting before a disaster strikes to prevent permanently the occurrence of the disaster or to reduce the effects of the disaster when it occurs. It is also used effectively after a disaster to reduce the risk of a repeat disaster."

Over the past 10 months, the County has been developing an all-hazard mitigation plan.This plan is intended to identify feasible strategies to reduce the potential loss of life, human suffering, and loss of property from the hazards we have identified.

Image: Severe Thunderstorm

Image: Flooded Home

To date, we have:

Identified hazards
- There are 27 natural and man-made hazards that have, or may affect the County
Performed a risk analysis
- By researching the number of times that a hazard has occurred over a period of time we can calculate its probability
- By surveying representative County departments, we determined the impact a particular hazard would have on the County
- By combining probability and impact, we created a two by two matrix as a tool for establishing priorities
Identified vulnerabilities in the County
- We mapped areas in the county that are most susceptible to the various individual hazards identified
Involved a wide spectrum of County agencies in the process
- County agencies provided background information and data to assist in the process
- We have held meetings with County agencies to receive feedback on the information that had been collected
Drafted feasible mitigation strategies intended to reduce or eliminate risk to residents and property
- These strategies, when implemented by the County, will reduce or eliminate the risk posed by the identified hazards
Conducted four public meetings to receive comment on the plan
Formally adopted the plan
Received approval of the plan from the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA)
Submitted the plan to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for approval

Actions that Remain:

Receive approval from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

Image: Sattelite Photograph of Hurricane Isabel

Draft All Hazard Mitigation Plan

The draft mitigation plan can be viewed online by clicking on the section links below. We invite the residents of Anne Arundel County to examine this Plan and provide feedback. The files are in PDF format which require the Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can download the reader for free from the Adobe Web site. To view a paper copy of the plan, call (410) 222-0600 to make an appointment at our office. We will also be placing copies of the plan in libraries around the County.

Mitigation Plan Table of Contents:

Entire draft mitigation plan (344 pages; 5,221 K).