Mitigation Best Practices

TALLAHASSEE, FL – A hurricane can leave a trail of devastation that includes loss of life and property. It can also have a major impact on the economy.

Florida’s Division of Emergency Management created the Hurricane Loss Mitigation Program in response to the damage Hurricane Andrew caused to Florida’s insurance market in 1992. Its aim is to minimize some of the risks associated with a storm.

NOGALES, AZ – The residents of the Monte Carlo Subdivision have long dreaded the rain. Bordered on three sides by dry washes, the community frequently floods. Even a mild storm sends floodwaters into the streets, threatening homes and the produce warehouses at the bottom of a hill. Residents spent weeks fixing damaged homes and cleaning up mud and debris. Roads, scoured by floodwaters and buried in a layer of sediment, have to be cleared and repaired constantly.

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, AZ - The neighborhood around Calle Azulejo, in the small community of Rio Rico, was designed in the 1960’s, before the dynamics of flash flooding was completely understood. As a result of building on unstable soil in an area prone to flash floods, some houses and streets were frequent victims of water damage, especially during monsoon season. The construction of houses, outbuildings and fences encroached upon the flood drainage easement, which channeled some of the rain water through the neighborhood, making the problem worse.

LOUISIANA - Tropical Storm Allison flooded nearly all of south Louisiana with three months of rain in three days. The storm provided a new opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of recent mitigation investments by Federal, State and local government. This report explores 11 projects where mitigation proved particularly effective. By reviewing the basis on which Federally funded mitigation activities were approved, the performance analysis details the damages avoided or financial savings that resulted from these activities.

JEDNOTA FLATS, PA - Jednota Flats in Lower Swatara Township floods almost every year. The area sits in a flood plain, and the homes endure up to ten feet of flood water during major rainstorms.

After flooding four times within twenty months during 2003 and 2004, the township’s Emergency Management Agency (EMA) Coordinator, Alan Knoche, looked for a way to reduce flood losses in Jednota Flats.

KANSAS - On May 3, 1999, a series of strong fronts moved through Oklahoma and Kansas, producing numerous tornadoes that tore through areas of both states considered parts of “Tornado Alley.” Two schools in Wichita were severely damaged. Luckily, the storms occurred after school hours and children were not present. But what if there had been children in the schools?

But even before the May 3 tornado event, the Sedgwick County Emergency Management Office looked at schools in the Wichita Public School District and asked this exact question.

SANIBEL, FL - Hurricanes leave damaged structures, disrupted lives, and disordered routines in their aftermath. While preventive actions like installing shutters can reduce those effects, the staff at the Sanibel Public Library discovered how building strong, and driving pilings deep, stabilized more than the library buildings.

LAKE WASHINGTON, WA - It was April 29, 1965, when the last major earthquake struck western Washington State. While aware of the possibility of another event, locals had been lax in their efforts to take action. With population growth over the years, and the building of more schools in the Lake Washington School District, parents and district staff members began vocalizing their concern about the risk of earthquake and what would happen to their children in such an event.

PUNTA GORDA, FL - When a disaster causes essential businesses such as gas stations, banks and grocery stores to shut down, even for a short time, the resulting problems can be dramatic for hard-hit communities. Publix Super Markets, Inc., resolved to take steps to keep its grocery stores open by installing super-sized generators at nearly half of its stores.

MONROE, WI - Monroe is a city with just over 10,800 people. Situated about 12 miles from the Illinois state line, it is in the middle of the southern half of Green County, Wisconsin. Its local claim to fame is cheese, produced by many of the surrounding farms whose earlier pioneering families immigrated from Germany and Switzerland in the early 1900s. Most people nationwide would recognize Monroe’s biggest employer as the headquarters for a Nationally famous Wisconsin cheese gift package shipper.