WETA Local Hazard Mitigation Plan
WETA has completed preparing a draft Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) in accordance with the Federal Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA 2000). DMA 2000 requires local governments to develop and submit HMPs as a condition of receiving Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and other mitigation project grant funding. This includes pre-disaster mitigation funding and post-disaster mitigation funding for existing WETA facilities.
The draft HMP has been submitted to the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) for review. The draft HMP with also be reviewed by Federal Emergency Management Agency after the Cal OES review. The HMP will be presented to the WETA Board of Directors for approval after the Cal OES and FEMA reviews are complete.
▸ Download the draft WETA HMP (122 pp PDF, 2.9 MB)
▸ View the draft WETA HMP (508 accessible reader)
WETA welcomes the public to review and comment on the HMP document. Please share your comments below.
What is Hazard Mitigation?
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) describes hazard mitigation as “any action taken to reduce or eliminate the long-term risk to human life and property from natural hazards.” Although the requirement set by 44 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Subpart M Section 206.401 requires a planning area to describe only natural hazards that may affect the jurisdiction, most planning areas include technological and human-caused hazards in the HMP to represent the total risk from hazards to the planning area. In addition, the State of California, enacted as SB 379, requires all local planning areas to assess vulnerabilities associated with climate change.
Hazards can result in death and destruction of property and infrastructure. The work done to minimize the impact of hazard events to life and property is called hazard mitigation. Often, these damaging events occur in the same locations over time (i.e. earthquakes along fault lines), and cause repeated damage. Because of this, hazard mitigation is often focused on reducing repetitive loss, thereby breaking the disaster cycle. The essential steps of hazard mitigation are:
- Identify and profile hazards that affect the local area
- Analyze the people and facilities at risk from those hazards
- Develop mitigation actions to lessen or reduce the impact of the profiled hazards.
What are the Requirements and Process for the WETA Hazard Mitigation Plan?
The requirements for an HMP are described in 44 CFR Parts 201 and 206. FEMA has produced a Local Mitigation Plan Review Tool to demonstrate how the mitigation plan meets the regulation in 44 CFR § 201.6. The plan review tool has a regulation checklist that provides a summary of FEMA’s evaluation of whether the plan has addressed all requirements. Planners can also use the checklist prior to submitting the plan for approval to ensure they have addressed all the requirements.
The primary tasks that will take place during the planning process include:
- Capability analysis
- Vulnerability assessment
- Hazard identification
- Defining a hazard mitigation strategy through actions and projects
- Implementing the hazard mitigation actions and projects
Public and Stakeholder Input
The HMP planning process requires input from stakeholders and the public. Generally, project stakeholders include neighboring jurisdictions and their agencies and departments that might interface with WETA during a disaster response. The public is represented by community members and community organizations that have interests in the WETA’s projects and actions to mitigate hazards and save lives and property.
WETA will continue to update the LHMP website throughout the planning process. Documents will be made available on this webpage. WETA will post updates on social media when documents are available for review.
WETA welcomes the public to review and comment on the LHMP documents as they become available. Please share your comments below.