What is Mitigation?
Mitigation is the cornerstone of emergency management. It's the ongoing effort to lessen the impact disasters have on people and property. Mitigation involves keeping homes away from floodplains, engineering bridges to withstand earthquakes, creating and enforcing effective building codes to protect property from hurricanes -- and more.
Mitigation is defined as "sustained action that reduces or eliminates long-term risk to people and property from natural hazards and their effects." It describes the ongoing effort at the Federal, State, local, and individual levels to lessen the impact of disasters upon our families, homes, communities and economy.
Through the application of mitigation technologies and practices, our society can ensure that fewer Americans and their communities become victims of natural disasters. For example, mitigation measures can be applied to strengthen your home so that your family and belongings are better protected from floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural hazards. They can be utilized to help business and industry avoid damages to their facilities and remain operational in the face of catastrophe. Mitigation technologies can be used to strengthen hospitals, fire stations, and other critical service facilities so that they can remain operational or reopen more quickly after an event. In addition, mitigation measures can help reduce disaster losses and suffering so that there is less demand for money and resources in the aftermath.
-- {excerpt from FEMA}
Some Useful Hazardous Weather Mitigation links:
What is Mitigation?
Reducing Losses for Homeowners Through Mitigation
Reducing the Risk: Information for Communities
Mitigation Information for Businesses
Reducing the Risk: Information for Building Professionals
How-To Guide to Mitigation
Wildland/Urban Interface Fire Mitigation |
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