BRAVE

BLAIR RESILIENCE: ADDRESSING VULNERABILITY & EXPOSURE

HAZARD MITIGATION PLAN UPDATE

Hazard Mitigation

Blair Planning is in the process of updating the Hazard Mitigation Plan for 2025.

Click here for the 2025 Plan Update Page

Click here for the Community Survey

Our current hazard mitigation plan was adopted by Blair County and all municipalities during 2020, with FEMA acknowledgement of the resolutions. The plan is available by exploring the graphic on this page (to the left on desktop and above on mobile). The plan profiles hazards the county faces, assesses capabilities, and proposes mitigation actions. If you have something to contribute on hazard mitigation, please contact the Planning office or the Blair County EMA.

The Previous Hazard Mitigation Plan

Click here for emergency preparedness resources

What is Hazard Mitigation?

Mitigation is the effort to reduce loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters. Mitigation is taking action now—through analyzing risk, reducing risk, or insuring against risk—to reduce the human and financial consequences of future disasters. Effective mitigation requires understanding of local risks, addressing hard choices, and investing in long-term community well-being. Not taking mitigation action jeopardizes our safety, financial security, and self-reliance.

What is Community Resilience?

Resilience is the capacity of individuals, communities, businesses, institutions, and governments to adapt to changing conditions and to prepare for, withstand, and rapidly recover from disruptions to everyday life, such as hazard events.

Hazard mitigation planning is the foundation of community resilience because it encourages the development of a long-term mitigation strategy. By going through the planning process, communities think about their risks and develop mitigation actions and projects before a disaster even has a chance of occurring, making it easier to recover from future events.

Why Do We Need a Plan?

Developing hazard mitigation plans enables state, tribal, and local governments to:

Increase education and awareness around threats, hazards, and vulnerabilities;
Build partnerships for risk reduction involving government, organizations, businesses, and public;
Identify long-term strategies for risk reduction that are agreed upon by stakeholders and public;
Identify cost-effective mitigation actions, focusing resources on greatest risks and vulnerabilities;
Align risk reduction with other state, tribal, or community objectives; and
Communicate priorities to potential sources of funding.

Moreover, a FEMA-approved hazard mitigation plan is a condition for receiving certain types of non-emergency disaster assistance, including funding for mitigation projects.