Habersham County will host its next Hazard Mitigation Plan meeting in Clarkesville August 15 at 10 a.m.
The county is updating its five year plan through a contract with Lux Mitigation and Planning.
“Any department, agency, organization that is willing to participate is more than welcome to,” Katy Westbrook of Lux said . “It’s open to the public. The whole point of the Hazard Mitigation Plan is to look at the hazards, both natural and manmade, that a community could face, and then what you can do ahead of time to try to minimize the impact, or lessen the blow, if or when one of those hazards were to occur.”
In a press release, the county said that though the meetings are open to the public, Habersham County Emergency Management Agency/E-911 Director Lynn Smith encourages large interests such as organizations, resorts, neighborhoods, or vulnerable populations to send only one representative to the meetings due to space constraints.
Through these meetings, the county will be able to create an up-to-date Hazard Mitigation Plan with input from community stakeholders which will allow Habersham to go after Hazard Mitigation Grants. Those Federal Emergency Management Agency grants can help fund the purchase of items like generators, NOAA Weather Radios, and tornado sirens, with FEMA paying 75% of the total cost. Additionally, the grants would allow the county to receive disaster assistance if or when a hazard occurs.
The August 15 meeting will discuss hazard mitigation strategies, the strategies identified last time the plan was reviewed for the last five years, and will determine whether to delete them, modify them, or add any new strategies that have come up in the past five years. Additionally, any structural projects, resources, or training that can occur ahead of time will be discussed.
There will also be a final meeting on September 19th. Both the forthcoming meeting and the final meeting will be at the Habersham County Ruby Fulbright Aquatic Center, 120 Paul Franklin Road, Clarkesville.
“We’re looking to hopefully in the next meeting have some of the utility companies here and different stakeholders as well,” Smith said.
