Mitigation
- What is Mitigation?
- Risk Analysis
- Risk Reduction
- Flood Insurance
- Mitigation's Value to Society
- Disaster Response and Recovery Resources
- Mitigation Best Practices Portfolio
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The tragic event of September 29th in Samoa and American Samoa have, once again drawn our attention to the devastating effects of tsunamis. The FEMA Mitigation Directorate has recently produced a companion publication to FEMA P646, Guidelines for Design of Structures for Vertical Evacuation from Tsunamis. The newly published FEMA P646a, Vertical Evacuation from Tsunamis: A Guide for Community Officials, provides guidance for local officials on how to implement the design guidelines detailed in FEMA P646. It examines how communities can plan, fund, construct, operate, and maintain vertical evacuation refuges.
Vertical evacuation is a significant issue for coastal communities that are vulnerable to near-source tsunamis that could be generated within minutes of an earthquake, such as on the Cascadia Subduction Zone in the Pacific Northwest. Vertical evacuation structures provide a means to create areas of refuge for communities in which quick evacuation out of the inundation zone is not feasible.
This guidance document includes: general information on the tsunami hazard and its history; guidance on determining the tsunami hazard, including tsunami depth and velocity; different options for tsunami vertical evacuation structures; guidance on siting, spacing, sizing, and elevation considerations; determining tsunami and earthquake loads and related structural design criteria; and structural design concepts and other considerations.
To download these and other essential mitigation publications, visit www.fema.gov/library/index.jsp.
What is Mitigation?
Mitigation is the effort to reduce loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters. This is achieved through risk analysis, which results in information that provides a foundation for mitigation activities that reduce risk, and flood insurance that protects financial investment.
FEMA’s Mitigation Directorate manages the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and implements a variety of programs authorized by Congress to reduce losses that may result from natural disasters. Effective Mitigation efforts can break the cycle of disaster damage, reconstruction, and repeated damage.
Risk Analysis
Government agencies must understand the full impact of natural hazards using applied multi-hazard engineering science and advanced technology in order to effectively plan to reduce natural hazard effects.
Risk Reduction
The goal of risk reduction is to reduce the risk to life and property, which includes existing structures and future construction, in the pre and post-disaster environments. This is achieved through regulations, local ordinances, land use and building practices, and Mitigation projects that reduce or eliminate long-term risk from hazards and their effects.
Flood Insurance
The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) goal is to reduce the impact of flooding on private and public structures by providing affordable insurance for property owners. The program encourages communities to adopt and enforce floodplain management regulations, which will mitigate the effects of flooding on new and improved structures.
The NFIP is helping communities reduce the socio-economic impact of disasters by promoting the purchase and retention of both Risk Insurance and National Flood Insurance.
Mitigation's Value to Society
Mitigation is valuable to society in these ways:
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It creates safer communities by reducing loss of life and property damage. For example, the rigorous building standards adopted by 20,000 communities across the country are saving the nation more than $1.1 billion a year in prevented flood damages.
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It allows individuals to minimize post-flood disaster disruptions and recover more rapidly. For example, homes built to NFIP standards incur less damage from floods. And when floods do cause damages, flood insurance protects the homeowner’s investment, as it did for the more than 200,000 Gulf Coast residents who received more than $23 billion in payments following the 2005 hurricanes.
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It lessens the financial impact on individuals, communities, and society as a whole. For example, a recent study by the Multi-hazard Mitigation Council shows that each dollar spent on mitigation saves society an average of four dollars.
Disaster Response and Recovery Resources
Find useful links on what to do before and after a disaster strikes:
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Mitigation Best Practices Portfolio
FEMA's Best Practices Portfolio is a collection of ideas for activities, projects, and potential funding sources that can help reduce or prevent the impacts of disasters. By sharing your first-hand experience of damaged areas, you help spread the word of how important, effective, and life-saving mitigation can be. Stories that focus on successful mitigation projects and practices implemented after a disaster may encourage communities and individuals to implement new mitigation efforts to prevent future damages.
Use the Online Submission tool or download the Submission Worksheet to help you capture key elements to draft and submit new stories. Our goal is to find examples that highlight a variety of hazards, mitigation actions, funding sources, and Best Practice subjects. We encourage you to enhance your story by including up to two related website links and as many as six supporting files (e.g., photographs, documents, PDFs, maps).
Featured Best Practice:
Federal Grant Helps Massachusetts Weather Storms
Scituate, MA - Since 1972, Scituate-resident Bill Montanari has refused to take a winter vacation for fear of flooding at his home on Jericho Road in Massachusetts. Every time a storm caused the water to rise, he spent the night on the couch anxiously watching the weather reports.
Jericho Road follows the coastline of Scituate Harbor with several residences and a salt water marsh on the side of the road opposite the harbor-front land. High-storm tides and intense coastal storm surges frequently left yards, driveways, and garages flooded with water.
During a storm in April 2007, his nervous feeling began to change. He rose from the couch at 1 a.m. to watch the high tide roll in. He anticipated water up to four feet would soon engulf his property. He slept restlessly on the couch for the remainder of the night wondering what damages this storm would bring. Read the full story.
Last Modified: Monday, 09-Nov-2009 11:21:48 EST