Mitigation Best Practices

WYOMING COUNTY, WV - The riverfront properties nestled along Laurel Creek in the Laurel Estates and Lillyton area of Matheny, West Virginia were home to 16 families that had suffered repeated flood damage. Wyoming County Emergency Services Director Dean Meadows describes this area as “the place in Wyoming County that has the most severe localized flooding and caused continual damage to property and homes.”

CHARLESTON, SC – The City of Charleston is known for its genteel beauty, conveying images of horsedrawn carriages strolling along cobblestone streets, ancient oak trees clothed in evergreen Spanish moss, and corridors of antebellum homes with open-air porches all shielded by a sea wall, appropriately called The Battery.

MICHIGAN - The State has been taking an active role in hazard mitigation for several years, and has increased its coordination by developing an interagency group to review and prioritize projects for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) funding available after a Presidential disaster declaration.

LAWRENCE COUNTY, OH - As coordinator of seven different mitigation projects after extensive flooding along the Ohio River in 1997, Doug Cade of Lawrence County Community Action, was primarily involved in acquiring and demolishing severely damaged properties. But in his meetings with residents and review of data from the Miller South flood area, Cade found that elevation of some flood-damaged properties was not only a viable alternative, but also the best one.

MILLVALE BOROUGH, PA - During a period of extremely heavy snowfall and rains in March of 1994, occupants of Millvale Borough complained of feeling movement in their homes.

Inspection showed evidence that earth movement had occurred over many years. Signs of recent earth movement in a grassy area behind one of the homes resulted in an evacuation order. Eventually, this earth movement resulted in a broken sanitary sewer line that polluted the groundwater.

ERIE, CO – A small mitigation project to repair a culvert at Erie Municipal Airport proved to be cost effective in the wake of the September 2013 flood.

For years, the culvert at the airport’s Coal Creek crossing needed significant repairs just to keep it operational during small storms.

GRAPEVINE, TX – Oak Grove Park’s Ballfield Complex, located in Grapevine, Texas, was built in the 1960s and is home to local baseball and soccer teams. Over the years, surface water resulting from inadequate drainage along with additions to the park caused flood and maintenance issues and posed problems for pedestrians.

MOORHEAD, MN – Moorhead has seen its share of flooding over the past two decades. In 1994, 1997, and 2002, the City of Moorhead took part in FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) to mitigate flooding and reduce future flood losses. A total of eight repetitive loss properties in1994, sixteen homes damaged in the 1997 flood, and two additional repetitive loss homes in 2002 have been acquired through the HMGP.

TILLAMOOK, OR – During the late fall of 2006, many of the businesses along Highway 101 in north Tillamook, Oregon were inundated with flood waters. More than a month later, some business owners were still shoveling mud and debris from inside their shops. At the Western Royal Inn it was business as usual because motel owners had used flood mitigation techniques to elevate the building.

MILLER COUNTY, AR – The vicious cycle of “damage-repair” was all too familiar a scenario for Judge Roy McNatt and his road foreman Gary Roberts. As heavy rainfalls continued to cause washouts on County Road (CR) 207 located in Fouke, Arkansas, the road crew would come out and dump loads of gravel as a “quick fix” so that local residents could gain road access. Later, culverts were relayed and rip-rap added in an attempt at strengthening the road. Not only was the project costly, it was time consuming and repetitive.