Logan County to develop updated All Hazard Mitigation Plan
First meeting to be October 10th, open to the public

 

[October 09, 2019] 

Logan County will update its plan to reduce the damages caused by natural hazards such as floods, thunderstorms with damaging winds or hail, snow and ice storms, tornados, drought, and excessive heat, among others. The plan is called an All Hazard Mitigation Plan and the process to update it will be funded through a grant from the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA). This Plan must be updated every five years.

“The goal of this Plan update is to identify projects and activities that will reduce the impacts to residents and property from natural hazard events”, said Kendall Caruthers, Logan County Emergency Management Agency Coordinator. “We already have an emergency response plan, but this mitigation plan is different because it focuses on ways to reduce and prevent damages before they occur,” added Caruthers.

The Logan County Hazard Mitigation Planning Committee will hold its first meeting to update the plan on Thursday, October 10th at the Logan County Safety Complex’s Blue Room, 911 Pekin Street, in Lincoln, beginning at 10 a.m. This Committee comprised of County and municipal representatives as well as technical partners and stakeholders, will meet over the next several months to update the Plan. Meetings of this committee will be conducted as working sessions so that any interested resident can attend and ask questions.

The frequency and damages caused by severe storms and other natural disasters in Logan County will be discussed at this meeting. “The purpose of this Committee Meeting is to identify how often severe weather events occur within the County and what kinds of damages have resulted. Based on this information we will begin to develop and update lists of activities and projects to reduce damages caused by these events,” said Caruthers.

After a draft of the Plan update is prepared, a public forum will be held to present the Plan for review and comment. The draft Plan update will be revised based on comments from the public and the state and federal government agencies. Following these revisions, the Plan will be presented for adoption at public meetings held by the County and at each of the participating municipalities.

[Kendall Caruthers
Logan County Emergency Management Agency]