Climate change. For years, scientists have studied its causes and effects, some warning of its long-term consequences. Today, climate change remains a hot topic (no pun intended) as emergency managers across the country must contend with its commonly associated hazards. Among them are more intense storms, frequent heavy precipitation, heat waves, drought, extreme flooding, and higher sea levels.
No matter where you stand on the subject of climate change, or where you are on the map, one or more of these hazards most likely poses risk to the state, county, tribal or territorial government you serve.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) believes that regardless of why the climate is changing, emergency managers have to be poised to respond to disasters and support preparedness efforts nationwide.
A key part of that preparation includes the development of a Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP). These plans, as everyone in the planning community knows, include (at a minimum), 1) a risk assessment, 2) a capability assessment, 3) the mitigation strategy, and 4) plan maintenance procedures. HMPs must be updated every five years, and approved by FEMA, in order for their owners to qualify for certain, pre-disaster federal funding.
In 2015, and as explained by the