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Hazard Mitigation Planning

Hazard mitigation plans are prepared with the goal of identifying, assessing, and
ultimately reducing both short-term and long-term risks to life and property. Done effectively,
hazard mitigation planning can help to break disaster cycles that involve repeated damage and
reconstruction of properties and economies. There are generally four steps in hazard mitigation
planning. These are risk assessment, assessment of the community’s ability to manage various
risks, risk mitigation strategy, and maintenance procedures for the risk mitigation plan.
Of these steps, the most important one is risk assessment. This is the step that involves
hazard identification and analysis. At hazard identification stage, all potential hazards that can
cause harm to people’s lives, property, critical infrastructure, and economy are identified. They
include both man-made and natural disasters. These potential hazards are not just identified but
also characterized in terms of the likelihood of their occurrence and the level of damage that they
are likely to cause. The risk identification and analysis stage is, therefore, the most important
step in hazard mitigation planning because it forms the basis of all other planning activities.
When risks are not correctly identified and assessed, the mitigation measures are likely to be
ineffective. They will either be inadequate or the community will be left vulnerable to risks that
were not identified.
When examining Lee County’s disaster mitigation plan, it is clear that effective job was
done at the risk assessment stage. All potential risks that could cause harm to the county have
been identified. These risks have also been assessed to determine those that are likely to occur
and those whose occurrence is likely to cause most harm (Lee County Emergency Management,
2017). From my personal experience, such comprehensive and accurate risk assessment

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significantly improves the overall effectiveness of the disaster mitigation plan as it ensures that
the plan addresses all possible hazards that may face a community.

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References

Lee County Emergency Management (2017). Joint Unified Local Mitigation Strategy.