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Mitigation |
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What is Mitigation What Is MitigationMitigation is the cornerstone of emergency management. It's the ongoing effort to lessen the impact disasters have on people and property. Mitigation involves keeping homes away from floodplains, engineering bridges to withstand earthquakes, creating and enforcing effective building codes to protect property from hurricanes -- and more. Mitigation is defined as "sustained action that reduces or eliminates long-term risk to people and property from natural hazards and their effects." It describes the ongoing effort at the Federal, State, local, and individual levels to lessen the impact of disasters upon our families, homes, communities and economy. Through the application of mitigation technologies and practices, our society can ensure that fewer Americans and their communities become victims of natural disasters. For example, mitigation measures can be applied to strengthen your home, so that your family and belongings are better protected from floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural hazards. They can be utilized to help business and industry avoid damages to their facilities and remain operational in the face of catastrophe. Mitigation technologies can be used to strengthen hospitals, fire stations, and other critical service facilities so that they can remain operational or reopen more quickly after an event. In addition, mitigation measures can help reduce disaster losses and suffering so that there is less demand for money and resources in the aftermath. In practice, mitigation can take many forms. It can involve actions such as:
Developing and implementing a plan in your business or community to reduce your susceptibility to hazards Reducing Losses for Homeowners through MitigationIn nearly every location across the country, homeowners are at risk from a variety of hazards, including: floods; earthquakes; high winds from tornadoes, hurricanes, and severe winter storms; and wildfires. Because most of these hazards only occur periodically, however, many homeowners don't even realize the danger they face. Nearly every location in every State is at risk. Flooding is by far the most prevalent, occurring to some degree in every State in the nation. Forty-one States have a moderate or higher earthquake hazard. Wildfires can occur anywhere that fuel exists and weather conditions are right. In addition, damaging high winds have caused destruction across the nation, particularly in coastal areas. Given the hazards that are out there, homeowners need to take action to protect themselves and their property. Fortunately, homeowners can reduce their risk through cost-effective mitigation measures. Ideally, these measures should be considered before your home is built. For example, potential homeowners should consider carefully the risks that they would face by moving to certain high-hazard areas before making the decision to buy or build. Also, when building your home, close attention should be paid to how your home is being constructed. Risks posed by all types of natural hazards (including floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, or wildfire) may be reduced substantially by paying attention to building codes and by incorporating mitigation measures into the structure. If you have an existing home, however, all hope is not lost. There are also many steps that you can take to better protect yourself from future losses. Buildings subject to earthquakes or high winds may be strengthened to make them more resistant to a variety of hazards. In addition, simple steps can be taken within your home to make your property less susceptible to damages if a disaster occurs. Mitigation Information for BusinessesWould you know what to do if an earthquake, flood, or hurricane hit tomorrow, and could your business survive? The resulting damage often goes beyond that of structure and contents. It means rebuilding costs, pressure on credit lines, loss of savings, out-of-work employees, all of which could be deadly to the future of your business. Your business operation can be interrupted by direct damages to your business location and equipment, or by failure of critical local infrastructures like electrical power, water supply and road systems. Over 630 businesses were affected in the Santa Cruz area by the 1989 Loma Prieta, California earthquake. Over 15% of these businesses never re-opened. Over 250 business in Chesterfield, Missouri where affected by the Midwest Floods of 1993. Only 65 of the businesses had re-opened a year after the flood and the Chamber of Commerce estimates that only 65 percent of the businesses will ever reopen. Mitigation is a proven, cost-effective option, for businesses to reduce their expose to damages. For example, in a flood prone area, businesses can elevate machinery and utility systems to reduce the likelihood of water damage during a flood. In an earthquake prone area, mitigation can be as simple as securing desktop equipment, like personal computers or cash registers, with heavy duty velcro or straps to prevent them from falling to the floor. In a hurricane prone area, the installation of storm shutters over all exposed windows. Debris can break windows, allowing high winds inside your business which can increase the level of damages. Businesses can take these first steps to implement mitigation measures:
What Is Floodplain ManagementThroughout history, people have settled next to waterways because of the advantages they offer in transportation, commerce, energy, water supply, soil fertility, and waste disposal. In spite of these benefits, however, our historic attraction to settling along rivers and steams in not without its drawbacks. Floods have caused a greater loss of life and property, and have disrupted more families and communities in the United States than all other natural hazards combined. The United States, as it moves into the 21st century, is at a crossroads in the use of its floodplains. The nation may choose to use these flood-prone lands for the primary purpose of economic development, or it may take action to better balance their economic and environmental outputs. Floodplain management is defined as a decision making process that aims to achieve the wise use of the Nation's floodplains. Floodplain management aims to achieve a reduction in the loss of life, disruption, and damage cause by floods; and the preservation and restoration of the natural resources and functions of floodplains (which, in turn, lessen damage potential). To achieve the goals of floodplain management, the nation must adopt a new approach- one that takes full advantage of all methods available to reduce vulnerabilities to damages and, in parallel, to protect and enhance the natural resources and functions of the floodplain. This approach would achieve flood plain management through:
The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has played a critical role in fostering and accelerating the principles of flood plain management. Flood insurance is available to flood prone communities through the NFIP, which is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Prior to the NFIP, flood insurance was generally unavailable from the private sector and most State and communities did not regulate floodplain development. Dependence was instead placed on the construction of flood control projects such as levees, dams, and channels to reduce flood damage. Despite the expenditures of billions of dollars for these flood control projects, annual flood damages and disaster assistance costs were increasing at a rapid pace. In response to this worsening situation, congress created the NFIP in 1968 to reduce flood losses and disaster relief cost by guiding future development away from flood hazard areas where practicable, requiring flood resistant design and construction, and transferring costs of losses to floodplain occupants through flood insurance premiums. The NFIP was broadened and modified by the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973, which requires the purchase of flood insurance as a condition for receiving any form of Federal or federally relate dfinancial assistance, such as mortgages loans from federally insured lending institutions. The NFIP has mapped floodplains in over20,000 communities and over 18,400 communities now participate in the program. Many States and communities have established floodplain management programs and adopted floodplain management statutes and regulations that go beyond NFIP requirements. The National Flood Insurance Reform Act (NFIRA), signed into law in 1994, strengthened the NFIP by providing for mitigation insurance and establishing a grant program for State and community flood mitigation planning projects. The NFIRA also codified the Community Rating System (CRS), established objectives for CRS and directs that credits may be given to communities that implement measures to protect natural and beneficial floodplain functions and manage the erosion hazard. The CRS is an incentive program whereby communities that exceed the minimum requirements of the NFIP secure reductions in the flood insurance premiums for their residents. Approximately 940 communities are currently participating in CRS. The policies in the CRS communities represent over 60 percent of all NFIP flood insurance policies currently in place. Examples of flood mitigation include elevating homes and business above the base flood (a flood having a percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in a given year), relocating homes out of the floodplain, and minimizing the vulnerability to flood damage through both structural and nonstructural means. Questions about the National Flood Insurance ProgramWhen you think about buying a flood insurance policy, do you have these kinds of reactions:
Here are the facts you need to know before you decide.Disaster assistance will be available if my home (or business) is flooded. I don't need to buy flood insurance!
It's too expensive!
My home isn't going to be flooded--we've never been flooded before!
So, what's so great about flood insurance?
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