All-Hazard Mitigation Plan

All Hazard Mitigation Plan

2010 Hazard Mitigation Plan Update New!
The 2010 update of the Hazard Mitigation Plan for Anne Arundel County is nearing completion. The Office of Emergency Management is currently asking for citizen feedback and comments. Please review the sections of the plan found below and email your comments and/or concerns to Christina Macey at cmacey@aacounty.org.

2010 Mitigation Plan (By Section)
Section 1 - Table of Contents	Section 6 - Hazard Identification, Profiling & Ranking
Section 2 - Executive Summary	Section 7 - Risk Assessment
Section 3 - Background	Section 8 - Mitigation Strategy
Section 4 - Approval - Adoption	Section 9 - Plan Montioring and Maintenance
Section 5 - Planning Process

>> See the 2004 Draft Mitigation Plan Below

Background Information

On October 30, 2000, the President signed into law the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, also known as DMA2K. Among its other features, DMA2K established a requirement that in order to remain eligible for Federal disaster assistance and grant funds, local and State governments must develop and adopt Hazard Mitigation Plans (HMPs). On February 26, 2002, the Federal Emergency Management Agency published an Interim Final Rule (IFR) that set forth the guidance and regulations under which such plans are supposed to be developed. The IFR provides detailed descriptions of both the planning process that States and localities are required to observe, and the contents of the plan that emerges.

The original version of the Anne Arundel County HMP was approved by the State and the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2005, and was subsequently adopted by the Anne Arundel County Council. The IFR related to mitigation planning specifies that local jurisdictions must update their HMPs every five years, so Anne Arundel County was not required to complete the update until 2010.

What is Mitigation?

Hazard mitigation is often defined as actions taken to reduce the effects of natural hazards on a place and its population.

The 2009 HMP update entailed a comprehensive re-evaluation of all parts of the plan, including hazard profiles, risk assessment, mitigation goals, strategies, and mitigation priorities.

The purpose of a mitigation plan is to rationalize the process of determining appropriate hazard mitigation actions. The document includes a detailed characterization of natural hazards in Anne Arundel County; a risk assessment that describes potential losses to physical assets, people and operations; a set of goals, objectives, strategies and actions that will guide Anne Arundel County’s mitigation activities, and a detailed plan for implementing and monitoring the Plan.

Image: Severe Thunderstorm

Image: Flooded Home

To date, we have:

Identified hazards
- 12 Hazards have been identified that have or may affect the County
Performed a risk analysis
- Risk is a numerical calculation of potential future damages. Although the range of events from erosion to winter storms all have some potential to affect the County, the hazard ranking determined that the Flood, hurricane wind, tornado and winter storm hazards would be included in the more detailed risk assessment
Identified vulnerabilities in the County
- We outlined the vulnerabilities to residents and property in Anne Arundel County, determining the 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
Have sent the draft copy of the plan to the Maryland Emergency Management Agency for approval, and to the planning team and stakeholders for review and comment. The plan has also been made available to the public for review and comment.

Actions that Remain:

Approval from the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA)
Approval from the County Executive Office
Approval from the Town of Highland Beach
Approval from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

Image: Sattelite Photograph of Hurricane Isabel

2004 Draft All Hazard Mitigation Plan

The draft mitigation plan can be viewed online by clicking on the section links below. 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.

2004 Mitigation Plan Table of Contents:

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