Local mitigation strategy (LMS) - Volusia County Government

SECTION 7: CAPABILITY ASSESSMENT7.3.2 Emergency ManagementHazard mitigation is widely recognized as one of the four primary phases of emergency management.Other phases include preparedness, response and recovery. In reality, each phase is interconnected withhazard mitigation as Figure 7.1 suggests. Planning for each phase is a critical part of a comprehensiveemergency management program and a key to the successful implementation of hazard mitigationactions. As a result, the Capability Assessment Survey asked several questions regarding emergencymanagement plans in order to assess the jurisdiction’s willingness to plan and their level of technicalplanning proficiency.FIGURE 7.1: The Four Phases of Emergency ManagementLocal Mitigation Strategy (LMS): Also called a hazard mitigation plan, the local mitigation strategyrepresents a community’s blueprint for how it intends to reduce the impact of natural and humancausedhazards on people and the built environment. The essential elements of a local mitigationstrategy include a risk assessment, capability assessment, mitigation strategy and the mitigation projectslist.Volusia County and its jurisdictions developed the first version of their local mitigation strategy in1999 (adopted 2000) and updated the plan in 2004 (adopted 2005). The plan is currently undergoinga revision that will be completed in 2009.Disaster Recovery Plan: A disaster recovery plan serves to guide the physical, social, environmental andeconomic recovery and reconstruction process following a disaster. In many instances, hazard mitigationprinciples and practices are incorporated into local disaster recovery plans with the intent of capitalizingon opportunities to break the cycle of repetitive disaster losses.Volusia County Multi-jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation PlanFebruary 20107:4