(Houston, TX) — Harris County is vulnerable to a wide range of natural hazards including flooding, tornadoes and hurricanes. One of the most effective tools a community can use to reduce risks from disasters is to develop and maintain a multi-hazard mitigation action plan. Harris County has started working on updates for its current plan through a collaborative process with multiple jurisdictions and public participation.
“Although the current plan doesn’t expire until 2020, our office starts working with our partners and the public well in advance,” said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett. “The overall goal is to update the plan to help minimize the impacts of future disasters and to make us eligible for federal hazard mitigation funds.”
Harris County has received federal grant funds to update the plan and recently hosted a meeting with 120 attendees from more than 70 organizations that will participate in the process. The planning partnership will consist of Harris County, Harris County Flood Control District, municipalities, special purpose districts, private non-profits and several stakeholder organizations.
“As we recover from past disasters and face new challenges, we will continue to work to rebuild a stronger and more resilient county,” added Emmett. “The county’s updated plan will provide guidance and a unified strategy to support that strength and resilience.”
It takes approximately 18 months to complete the updates before the final plan is submitted to the State of Texas and FEMA for review. Once approved, each jurisdiction may adopt the plan, which will allow their communities to more readily access hazard mitigation and disaster recovery funds from FEMA when a disaster occurs.
Harris County will provide several opportunities for public input and comments by providing public notices of meetings, hosting public input workshops, posting the draft plan online for public review; and seeking stakeholder and subject matter expert input.
The steering committee will consist of 16 jurisdictions and 16 stakeholders that represent the entire planning partnership and oversees the planning process. All steering committee meetings will be open to the public. The first meeting will take place on October 18th, 10 a.m. to noon at Houston TranStar, 6922 Katy Road, Conference Room 120-A, Houston, Texas 77024.
Future meetings will be posted at https://www.readyharris.org/mitigation.