Morgan County EMA preparing Hazard Mitigation Plan for 2027
Jonathan Warner, Morgan County Emergency Management Agency director, said the Hazard Mitigation Plan is required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency every five years.
"What they want to know is how are we mitigating that hazard; how are we preparing for that hazard that's coming," he said. "The weather is a big one. Also, they look for our chemical hazards and our hazardous materials that flow through the county. Of course, since we're in Morgan County, our hazard of Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant. With the river running through, with the railroad running through, main interstates running through."
Warner said it even takes into account gas pipelines like the one running parallel to Interstate 65 through the county.
"Every kind of hazard like that goes into our mitigation plan, and we prove to FEMA in that plan how we're prepared for these hazards, and how we plan to deal if something goes wrong with these hazards," he said.
The plan is due in 2027, however, it takes about a year to complete, Warner said. He said it is a regional plan which covers 10 counties in Alabama. Top of Alabama Regional Council of Governments (TARCOG) has been hired to complete the plan, which was about 1,000 pages in 2022, Warner said.
The total cost for all 10 counties, Warner said, is $250,000. Split evenly among the counties, each one pays $25,000. At Tuesday's Morgan County Commission meeting, the commission approved paying the $25,000 out of the general fund for completion of the plan.
"The reason it's on the agenda now is typically we get a grant from FEMA. The state applies for the grant and gets the grant, and then the state pays TARCOG to do this Hazardous Mitigation Plan," Warner said. "The state applied for the grant this year, the grant was allocated for this, and the new administration came in and froze everything."
Warner said, although the money has been allocated for the plan, the money is untouchable currently.
"We don't know if we're going to eventually get this money or not," he said.
Warner said the plan is federally required through FEMA, even if the county has to pay for it.
"We've always gotten reimbursed for that; it's just a federal thing," said Commission Chairman Ray Long. "So many of the federal dollars are held up right now while they're going through this thing with (Elon) Musk and looking at all the federal contracts, all the appropriations. It's held up in that right now."
Long said he is confident the funds will be reimbursed.
"EMA is something that Congress has always supported us having money to do our job," he said. "That's not something they're going to cut out. It's just frozen right now, so we can't get it."
Long said they have to keep the ball rolling, despite frozen funds.
"We can't wait for everything to unfreeze to do what we need to do," he said. "We don't need to sit and put it off three, four, five months, whatever it is. It needs to keep rolling. So, we'll front the money. And, if we don't get reimbursed, then it's still something we need to do. We've got to have a Hazard Mitigation Plan; we've got to have it."
—erica.smith@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2460.
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