Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

From Natural Disasters To Terrorism, Here's How Your Community Plans To Handle Hazardous Situations

Hamilton County Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency
The Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan includes dealing with flooding like the region experienced earlier this year.

If you want to know your community's strategy for dealing with a hazardous situation, Hamilton County has a plan for that.

After months of surveys and public meetings, Hamilton County's Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency is nearly ready to submit its updatedMulti-Hazard Mitigation plan to FEMA for review.

The agency is asking for a final round of public input. You canread the 270-page plan here.

"Utility failures, terrorism, cyberattack, we've identified 25 hazards in this plan that we have strategies to address," says Assistant Director Ryan McEwan.

All 48 jurisdictions within Hamilton County participated in updating the document. A refresh is required every five years.

McEwan says the strategies get a lot of use. The goal is to break the disaster cycle. "We prepare for disasters, we respond to disasters, we recover from disasters, and before we have to prepare for the next disaster, we want to make it so that the next time we have a hazard it doesn't effect us quite so much."

Comments should be emailed to Ryan McEwan by close of business on April 27.

Senior Editor and reporter at WVXU with more than 20 years experience in public radio; formerly news and public affairs producer with WMUB. Would really like to meet your dog.