Hazard Mitigation

Hazard Mitigation is any action taken to eliminate or reduce the long-term risk to human life and property from natural and technological hazards.  While preparedness and response may focus primarily on reacting to a disaster itself, mitigation is a continuous activity intended to make families and communities more disaster-resistant.

Examples of mitigation include:

• Wise management of development in flood-prone areas
• Enactment and enforcement of building codes which require structures to withstand a baseline level of disaster forces
• Acquisition or elevation of repetitively-flooded buildings
• Seismic retrofit of buildings
• Tornado safe rooms and community shelters
•  Instructions for building a Residential Safe Room
• Utility protective measures
• Storm water management and localized flood control projects.

For more information on Hazard Mitigation please visit  Fema Mitigation Site

The Kentucky Division of Emergency Management has a mitigation section in its Operations and Recovery Branch and participates in several FEMA-sponsored programs, including:

• The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP)
• The Flood Mitigation Assistance Program (FMA)
• The Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program (PDM)
• The Repetitive Flood Claims Grant Program (RFC)

For more ideas, activities/projects and funding sources that can help reduce or prevent the impacts of disasters please take a look at FEMA's portfolio of Mitigation Best Practices.  You can even search for Kentucky's best efforts.   

Following a Presidential disaster declaration, the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) provides funding to the State for projects to reduce damages, losses and suffering in future disasters.  The intent of HMGP is to provide a federal, state and local partnership in developing and funding mitigation projects.

Eligible applicants for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program include local governments, state agencies and certain nonprofit organizations. 

These funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) represent up to 75% of the costs of mitigation projects, such as:

• Voluntary Acquisition/Demolition or Elevations of flood-prone structures to conversion to open space in perpetuity
• Voluntary Acquisition/Demolition of landslide-prone structures to conversion to open space in perpetuity
• Infrastructure Protection Measures against windstorms or earthquakes
• Dry Flood proofing of commercial property
• Minor Structural Flood Control Projects
• Tornado Safe Rooms and Community Shelters
• Utility Protection Measures

The remaining 25% must come from non-federal sources. In Kentucky, the state provides up to 12% of the project costs; the applicant community must provide the remaining 13%.

The local cost share may be cash or provided through in-kind donations of labor, services or materials related to the project. The applicant community may also apply to other agencies for funds which can be used as "local match." These funds, in some cases, may also be money originating from the federal government but which lose their federal identity at the state level.

Eligible projects must meet a FEMA approved benefit-cost analysis. That is, the applicant must be able to demonstrate that for every dollar spent on a project at least a dollar’s worth of future damage protection will be realized.

Projects must also be environmentally sound. The Kentucky State Clearinghouse, a series of state regulatory agencies, must review projects for any effects on environmental, archeological and historic resources. These agencies may provide guidance on permits, which must be obtained before the project may proceed or actions the applicant community must take to reduce the effects on such resources.

Up to ten percent (10%) of the HMGP funds allocated to the state after a declared disaster may be spent on projects whose benefit-cost analysis is difficult or impossible to perform. Applications for this subset of the HMGP often involve projects such as:

• Outdoor or indoor warning systems
• Hazard Mitigation education programs
• NOAA weather radios
• Generators

Up to seven percent (7%) of the HMGP funds allocated to the state after a declared disaster may be used for local or state mitigation planning activities. Mitigation planning is mandated by the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 as a condition for receiving mitigation grants.

A community that receives a HMGP grant for any project assumes responsibility to maintain at its own expense any equipment or property acquired with the grant.

A community interested in applying for an HMGP grant must file a Letter of Intent with the State Hazard Mitigation Office and fill out an application provided by that office.

The letters of intent and the applications are examined by the State Hazard Mitigation Officer for completeness, and the State Hazard Mitigation Team reviews applications to choose which ones are to be sent to FEMA for possible funding.

For more information on the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program please visit FEMA's website.

ADDITIONAL GUIDANCE:

Acquisition projects:
Where a city or county acquires flood-prone or landslide-prone structures and demolishes them, the local jurisdiction takes ownership of the remaining property in perpetuity, and the deed specifies that only very restricted uses are allowed for the property. This is done to insure no future flood or landslide damages will occur. The jurisdiction can sell the property only to another government entity with the same deed restrictions and only with the permission of the Division of Emergency Management and FEMA.

Start of projects:
No projects involving HMGP funds may begin before FEMA provides final approval to the project and a Master Agreement is written and approved between the state and the community.

Project changes:
Any change in the scope of work for a project must be approved by the State Hazard Mitigation Officer and FEMA.

The Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program (PDM) provides funds to the State for pre-disaster mitigation planning and the implementation of cost-effective mitigation projects prior to a disaster event.

The PDM program is a nationally competitive program.  There is no state allocation and no national priority for projects.  The PDM program is funded on an annual cycle.

The PDM program is funded by FEMA with a funding split of up to 75% of the project funded by federal funds.  The remaining 25% must be paid by the local community. 

Eligible applicants include local governments, state agencies and public universities. 

Eligible project types include:

• Voluntary Acquisition/Demolition or Elevations of flood-prone structures to conversion to open space in perpetuity
• Structural retrofitting and non-structural retrofitting of existing public or private structures to meet or exceed applicable building codes
• Construction of tornado safe rooms/community shelters
• Protective measures for utilities, water and sanitary sewer systems and/or infrastructure
• Storm water management projects to reduce or eliminate long-term risk from flood hazards
• Localized flood control projects, such as certain ring levees, bank stabilization, and floodwall systems that are designed specifically to protect critical facilities
• Planning 

To be eligible to receive grant funds an applicant community must be a participant in good standing of the National Flood Insurance Program if the community has been mapped by FEMA and is identified as having a Special Flood Hazard Area.  Also, the applicant community must have a FEMA approved Local Hazard Mitigation Plan in place. 

Eligible projects must meet a FEMA approved benefit-cost analysis. That is, the applicant must be able to demonstrate that for every dollar spent on a project at least a dollar’s worth of future damage protection will be realized.

For more information visit FEMA's Pre-Disaster Mitigation program website.

The Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) grant program provides funding to the State so that cost-effective measures are taken to reduce or eliminate the long-term risk of flood damage to buildings, manufactured homes, and other structures insurable under the NFIP. 

The FMA program is funded on an annual cycle.  Each year the state gets a target allocation of funding for which local communities can apply.

The FMA program is funded by FEMA with a funding split of up to 75% of the project funded by federal funds.  The remaining 25% must be paid by the local community. 

The State of Kentucky's priority for this fund is to target the reduction of properties that are located on the National Flood Insurance Program's Repetitive Loss List.  Other eligible projects include:

• Voluntary acquisition of insured real property to conversion to open space in perpetuity
• Elevation of insured public or private structures to avoid flooding
• Dry flood proofing of insured non-residential structures
• Structural retrofitting and non-structural retrofitting of existing public or private structures to meet or exceed applicable building codes relative to floodplain management

Eligible applicants must have a FEMA approved FMA plan.  If a community does not have a FEMA approved FMA plan funds are available to write one during each grant cycle.

For more information please visit the Flood Mitigation Assistance program.

The Repetitive Flood Claims (RFC) grant program provides funding to reduce or eliminate the long-term risk of flood damage to structures insured under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) that have had one or more claim payment(s) for flood damages.

RFC funds may only be used to mitigate structures that are located within a State or community that is participating in the NFIP that cannot meet the requirements of the Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) program because they cannot provide the non-Federal cost share, or do not have the capacity to manage the activities.

The long-term goal of the RFC grant program is to reduce or eliminate the number reoccurring flood insurance claims, through mitigation activities that are in the best interest of the National Flood Insurance Fund (NFIF).

All RFC grants are eligible for up to 100 percent Federal cost assistance in FY 2006. The RFC grants are awarded to Applicants on a nationwide basis without reference to State allocations, quotas, or other formula-based allocations.

In FY 2006, the priority is to fund the acquisition of severe repetitive loss properties, as well as non-residential properties that meet the same claims thresholds as severe repetitive loss properties. As defined by FIRA 2004, in order for a property to meet the SRL designation, it must be insured under the NFIP and have incurred flood losses that resulted in either: 

• four or more flood insurance claims payments that each exceeded $5,000, with at least two of those payments occurring in a 10-year period, and with the total claims paid exceeding $20,000; or
  
• two or more flood insurance claims payments that together exceeded the value of the property.
  
  Acquisitions include the demolition or relocation of flood-prone structures and deed restricting the vacant land for open space uses in perpetuity.

For more information please visit FEMA's Repetitive Flood Claims program website.

"The Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 created a new requirement for states and local governments to have approved mitigation plans as a condition of receiving any mitigation grant assistance. These plans must be approved by FEMA by Nov. 1, 2004.

These plans must include an assessment of the hazards affecting the jurisdiction, the vulnerability of the built environment and strategies for reducing future disaster losses.

Federal regulations implementing this requirement make it clear that an active, participatory planning process and official adoption is required for a state or local jurisdiction to receive approval for its mitigation plan. The Division of Emergency Management is working through Kentucky's fifteen Area Development Districts to produce regional plans, to meet the requirements. In a few cases, communities are working on local "stand alone" mitigation plans. Funding for planning activities is available through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and the Pre-Disaster Mitigation program.

For more information please visit FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Planning .

The Kentucky Association of Mitigation Managers (KAMM) was formed in order to promote floodplain management and mitigation in Kentucky. Its members represent local floodplain coordinators, planning and zoning officials, engineers, surveyors, GIS specialists, hydrologists, and emergency managers.

The purpose of KAMM is to provide a means of state and local floodplain managers to join with others regarding floodplain management policies and activities.

Additionally, KAMM exists to advance the study, research, and exchange of information on the technical aspects of floodplain management to reduce flood damage within the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

KAMM sponsors an annual conference to promote floodplain awareness and as a forum for local, state, and federal officials to educate the public. KAMM is a Chapter Member of the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM).

The Kentucky Association of Mitigation Managers offers Corporate, Agency, Individual, and Student memberships to those interested in flood hazard mitigation. If you are interested in becoming a KAMM member please visit their website  .