Everyone involved in emergency management knows that hazard mitigation is one of the five phases of our nation’s “preparedness cycle.” And everyone understands its primary goals/benefits—a decrease in repetitive structural losses, reduced financial hardship, and of course, significantly fewer injuries and deaths. But not everyone, especially the public at large, fully realizes just how significant and effective hazard mitigation planning can be (especially with financial assistance from FEMA’s mitigation grant programs).
Fortunately, through the federal agency’s recently published mitigation success stories, and now its new Hazard Mitigation Assistance Division Year in Review (2020), that may change.
According to FEMA, the Hazard Mitigation Assistance Division Year in Review (2020) provides an overview of the activities and accomplishments over the course of the year. It also highlights success stories that demonstrate how the HMA division advances FEMA’s strategic goals of building a culture of preparedness and readying the nation for catastrophic disasters through its grant programs. These programs include:
- Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP)
- Flood Mitigation Assistance Grant Program (FMA)
- Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC), which replaced the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program (PDM) for new funding beginning in fiscal year 2020
- Hazard Mitigation for Fire Grant Program (HMGP Post-Fire)
At BOLDplanning, we encourage emerg