Latest news with #HazardMitigationPlan
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Emmet County's updated Hazard Mitigation Plan is nearly finished. How to give input
PETOSKEY — An updated Hazard Mitigation Plan for Emmet County that has been years in the making is approaching completion. Stephanie Marchbanks, community planner with Networks Northwest, presented the final draft of the Hazard Mitigation Plan to the Emmet County Board of Commissioners during their meeting on March 13. 'About three years ago we applied on behalf of Emmet County for a FEMA grant to update your Hazard Mitigation Plan for the county,' Marchbanks said. 'We consider three types of hazards, natural hazards are the focus. We look at risk regarding flooding, regarding winter weather, shoreline erosion, all that stuff." 'There's also included in this plan, which really wasn't included before, what we consider technological hazards,' Marchbanks added. 'Those are things like a hazardous materials fixed site or transportation incident, a structure fire or a major build infrastructure failure or an energy shortage. It also considers things that are human-induced hazards, these are things like your public health emergencies with the pandemic, a cyberattack or major network disruption, or a civil disturbance.' Subscribe: Check out our offers and read the local news that matters to you The plan includes input from a wide variety of community stakeholders, including county officials, local tribal leadership, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, the Emmet County Road Commission, local law enforcement and more. An online survey early in the process also gathered public feedback. 'All together, the main portion of the document is what we call the hazard analysis,' Marchbanks said. 'For every hazard we have a description of the hazard, the location of impact, ... history of previous occurrences, extent of impact to people, property, the economy and the environment. We consider the probability of a future event based on that information, and also an overall vulnerability assessment for that specific hazard.' Some key issues for the county were also identified in the plan. 'Flood mitigation and coastline resiliency was a big one,' Marchbanks said. 'There is a proposed strategy in the plan that talks about the Tannery Creek area at U.S. 131 and Bear Creek Township, how that area has been historically prone to some major flooding. There's a proposed project in the strategies to hopefully open up that culvert and mitigate any future flooding there, which would be great.' Many municipalities in the county took part in the planning process, but not all. Marchbanks said they intend to reach out again to try and have as much participation as possible. 'A lot of the outer townships haven't participated so far, and it's important because FEMA requires local governments to have evidence of participating in development of the plan if they want to apply for a FEMA grant for hazard mitigation in the next five years,' she said. 'So if they're not considered a participant then they can't adopt the plan at the local level and they can't apply for a grant in the future.' The commissioners approved setting a public hearing for their April 7 meeting to address any final questions about the plan or hear any additional comments. The Hazard Mitigation Plan is open for public comment online from March 13 to April 7 on the Networks Northwest website, with a link also available on the Emmet County website. Comments can also be sent to — Contact Jillian Fellows at jfellows@ This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Emmet County sets April 7 public hearing for Hazard Mitigation Plan
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Morgan County EMA preparing Hazard Mitigation Plan for 2027
Mar. 12—The Morgan County Commission will pay $25,000 for an Emergency Management Agency Hazard Mitigation Plan to be completed that in the past has always been paid for by a federal grant, however the grant has been frozen by the federal government at this time. 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." — or 256-340-2460.
