Hazard
Mitigation
Mitigation
is anything that can reduce the chance of a disaster occurring,
or lessen the damage from a disaster that cannot be avoided.
Mitigation can be simple and inexpensive, or complicated
and costly. The degree of risk and the extent of potential
damage are two factors that help determine whether a given
mitigation measure is a cost effective way to deal with
a threat.
Examples
of mitigation measures include:
- Elevating
a structure above the flood level to prevent water damage
- Strapping
a hot water heater in place to keep it from tipping
over in an earthquake
- Clearing
vegetation around a home in the woods to protect it
from wildfires
Project
Impact
Our
community was the recipient of a $300,000.00 federal mitigation
grant called Project Impact. The Project Impact philosophy
is that every dollar spent appropriately on prevention
measures saves several dollars later in potential disaster
recovery costs. Project Impact funded several mitigation
projects within Clark County. In one project, several
schools were seismically retrofitted to make the classrooms
safer for their students in an earthquake.
Hazard
mitigation plan
Grant
monies also funded the development of the Clark
County Hazard Mitigation Plan. The plan outlines the
potential hazards that face Clark County and proposes
various community-wide solutions that could reduce the
impact of disasters in Clark County. Depending on available
funding and community support for the proposed projects,
these ideas could spare the community the catastrophic
expense and tragedy associated with disasters.
Right
click the links to download the Executive
Summary ( 257 KB, PDF) or the full
plan (2.3 MB, PDF) as a single document. (The link
in the first paragraph will provide you with a navigable
table of contents linked to separate files in higher resolution
than the pages and graphics in the full plan.)
|
