Preventing damage caused by severe weather

From the Logan County Emergency Management Agency

[October 23, 2012]  The severe drought of 2012 raises important questions. How vulnerable are Logan County residents to drought and other natural hazards such as floods and tornadoes? What are the most frequently occurring natural hazards in Logan County? How much damage is caused to human health and property by natural hazards?

These questions and other related issues will be discussed when representatives from Logan County and local municipalities meet on Nov. 1 at the Logan County Public Safety Complex, 911 Pekin St. in Lincoln. This group, the Logan County Hazard Mitigation Committee, will meet through the next several months to prepare a plan to reduce damage caused by natural hazards. The committee meeting begins at 4 p.m. and is open to the public.

Atlanta, Broadwell, Elkhart, Emden, Hartsburg, Lincoln and Mount Pulaski are participating in this planning process. There is still time for other municipalities to join the process.

"Participating in this planning process will help assure that each municipality receives all of the funds for which it is eligible when the next federally declared disaster strikes," said Terry Storer of the Logan County Emergency Management Agency.

"The plan should become our best resource to help county and municipal officials decide what steps to take to prepare for storms and other natural hazards," said Dan Fulscher, director of the Logan County EMA. "After this plan is completed, comprehensive information will be available in one document to help guide those who are making decisions about how to better protect Logan County residents. We already have an emergency response plan. The mitigation plan we are developing is aimed at reducing damages before these storms hit."

Developing public information materials, building storm shelters, and designing roads, bridges, water supplies and other services to better withstand natural disasters are examples of the kinds of projects and activities that can reduce storm damage.

Public comments will be used to develop a draft plan. After the draft plan is developed, it will be presented for review and comment at a public forum. The draft plan will be revised based on comments from the public and state and federal government agencies. Following these revisions, the plan will be presented for adoption at public meetings conducted by the county and at each of the participating municipalities.

"By identifying the frequency of these natural hazards and their magnitude in our county, we can better develop a strategy to reduce damages caused by these events," noted Fulscher.

[Text from file received from the Logan County Emergency Management Agency]