The purpose of a Hazard Mitigation Plan is to outline potential hazards that may affect a community, and identify ways to reduce the amount of impact or damage BEFORE the hazard actually occurs. There are four main elements of the Plan.

• Risk Assessment
  There are three components to the Risk Assessment element of the Plan. These include Hazard Identification, Hazard Profiling, and Vulnerability Assessment.
  • Hazard Identification involves review of federal, state, and county information on what hazards are likely to affect the Plan area. Hazards can be natural, such as drought, flooding, and tornadoes, or man-made, such as bomb threats or transportation accidents. Only natural hazards are required to be covered in the plan, but it is also strongly suggested that applicable man-made hazards also be included.
    See List of Hazards
  • Hazard Profiling provides a comprehensive description of the hazard and its potential impacts. Information in the profile includes such items as past events, magnitude, frequency/duration, seasonal pattern, speed of onset, and location.
  • FEMA list of hazards
  • Vulnerability Assessment identifies the critical facilities and locations in the Plan area which may be particularly vulnerable to the onset of a hazard. For example, all homes and businesses within the 100-year floodplain would be particularly vulnerable to flooding, or a mobile home park would be particularly vulnerable to high winds associated with tornadoes. Schools or other large buildings that house large numbers of people will also be inventoried. The Vulnerability Assessment also includes an estimate of potential losses by approximating the dollar amount of damages in the event of a hazard. This is accomplished using historic data, as well as calculating the value of vulnerable assets. Future development trends and plans are also considered.
• Mitigation Strategy
  The Mitigation Strategy element of the Plan uses the information collected in the Risk Assessment to develop a set of mitigation goals and objectives for the County. Potential mitigation actions to help achieve these goals will then be identified, and the actions will be prioritized according to local capabilities, cost-effectiveness, and funding sources. Communities will be involved in developing the mitigation strategy through public participation opportunities. Once the actions are prioritized, the implementation strategy will be prepared. This identifies how the actions will be implemented and who is responsible, along with a time frame for implementation.
• Plan Maintenance Procedures
  This element of the Plan describes how the Plan will be monitored, evaluated, and updated, and how it may be incorporated into other planning functions, such as comprehensive planning. It must be very specific on how often and who will update the Plan, and what criteria will be used to evaluate it. It also specifies who will monitor the progress of the implementation of mitigation actions.
• Documentation of Planning Process
  This section of the plan describes the process of creating the Plan, and a general definition of the planning area. All persons involved in the process and their level of involvement will be described, as well as the methods of public participation that were employed. A detailed description of the decision-making and prioritization processes is also required in this section.