Recognizing that the risk of disaster is increasing in St. Croix County, hazard mitigation planning is now more important than ever for our communities. Residents, businesses and communities are vulnerable to a variety of hazards, such as high wind events, tornados, power outages, extreme cold and more.
The St. Croix County Local Emergency Planning Committee will host the first of four meetings to guide the mitigation plan update, open to the public, on Thursday, May 4, 1 p.m., in the St. Croix County Government Center board room, 1101 Carmichael Road, Hudson.
Such hazards have the potential to cause property damage, economic hardship and threats to health and safety. While an important aspect of emergency management deals with disaster recovery (the actions that a community takes to repair damages), an equally important aspect of emergency management involves hazard mitigation, or the sustained actions taken to reduce long-term risk to life and property.
Example mitigation activities include things like land-use planning, stronger building codes, education and public awareness, flood zoning, buying insurance, community shelters and safe rooms, and using fire-resistant construction materials in wildfire hazard areas.
Hazard mitigation actions are essential to creating a disaster-resilient community and breaking the typical disaster cycle of damage, reconstruction, and repeated damage.
St. Croix County is commencing with an update to the County’s All-Hazard Mitigation Plan. This plan is a prerequisite to be eligible in obtaining certain FEMA grant programs for project funding. For example, these funds have enabled Deer Park to acquire flood prone property and River Falls to construct a community safe room (storm shelter) at Hoffman Park.
The St. Croix County Local Emergency Planning Committee will be hosting four meetings to guide the mitigation plan update. These meeting agendas will be posted at the county’s website and are open to the public. St. Croix County residents, businesses, area organizations and communities are invited to participate in these meetings.
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