Strategic planning workshop held on hazard mitigation

Protecting the people and property of Clearwater County is the goal of the All Hazard Mitigation planning process that reached another milestone Wednesday with a strategic planning workshop.

The purpose of the all-day workshop was to determine pre-disaster actions that can be taken by local agencies, organizations, businesses and residents to minimize the negative impact of natural, technological and societal hazards.

Clearwater County's hazard mitigation goals are to:

• Save lives and reduce public exposure to risk
• Reduce or prevent damage to public and private property
• Reduce adverse environmental or natural resource impacts
• Reduce the financial impact on the public

Risk assessment has been completed on all the incorporated communities as well as on "neighborhoods" throughout the county. The assessment, done by the Clearwater County All Hazard Mitigation Planning Task Force, identified the hazards that most impact the local area and determined the county's vulnerability to each hazard.

Mitigation actions can take a wide variety of forms; including everything from public education about family emergency preparedness to projects that change the channel of a creek to make it less flood prone. The task force built on information and projects started under Project Impact, a previous mitigation program.

Five groups worked through the tasks of first determining goals in each hazard area, then specific actions to achieve those goals. The groups were flood, wildland and urban fire, loss of electricity and severe winter storms, loss of telecommunications and landslide. After reviewing mitigation actions and plans already in place, participants combined their expertise and experience to determine goals and then specific actions to achieve those goals. Each group then prioritized their goals. The final product will be an All Hazard Mitigation Plan that will be presented to the public later this spring.

While some of the goals such as projects on Orofino Creek may take several years to accomplish, the plan will provide a framework and resource for mitigation work.

Editor's Note: Watch for future articles in Window on the Clearwater outlining the goals and objectives developed by each individual group.

Photos: Top--The Landscape group discusses mitigation goals and actions. Second--Julie Borders, Clearwater Economic Development, records the discussion of the Wildland/Urban Fire group. Third--Severe Winter Storm/Loss of Electricty group discusses information. Bottom--Christine Frei, CEDA, All Hazard Mitigation Planning coordinator, gives instructions for the workshop.