Welcome

On June 22, 2010 Kittitas County kicked off the planning process for the Kittitas County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP). The HMP will identify all natural hazards within Kittitas County and will outline the history, future vulnerability, and future damage potential for each hazard. The plan's goal is to identify mitigation projects that will reduce the vulnerability and damage potential of each hazard. The plan will address earthquake, wildland fire, flood, severe storm (40+ mph sustained winds and/or significant snow or rain), landslide, avalanche, drought, volcano/lahar/ash fall, seiche, and dam failure hazards.

The plan will be a collaborative planning effort between Kittitas County and local jurisdictions and special districts within the county because many issues are better resolved by evaluating them comprehensively at the countywide level. Jurisdictions that have chosen to participate are members of the Planning Partnership.

The planning process is estimated to take 14 months and will provide the public an opportunity to participate through public meetings and open houses. A consultant has been hired to facilitate the planning process, perform the risk analysis, and write the plan.

Once the completed plan is approved by the Washington Military Emergency Management Division and FEMA and adopted by each participating jurisdiction, those jurisdictions become eligible to apply for additional FEMA grants for mitigation projects.

Guiding Principle

Through partnerships, reduce the vulnerability to natural hazards in order to protect the health, safety, welfare and economy of the communities within Kittitas County.

Goals

1. Protect life, property and the environment
2. Continuously build and support local capacity to enable the public to mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from the impact of hazards and disasters
3. Establish a hazard and disaster resilient economy
4. Promote public awareness, engage public participation and enhance partnerships through education and outreach
5. Encourage the development and implementation of long-term, cost-effective mitigation projects

Objectives

1. Reduce natural hazard-related risks and vulnerability to populations, critical facilities and infrastructure within the planning area
2. Minimize the impacts of natural hazards on current and future land uses by encouraging use of incentives for hazard mitigation (i.e. NFIP, CRS)
3. Prevent (or discourage) new development in hazardous areas or ensure that if building occurs in high-risk areas that it is done in such a way as to minimize risk
4. Integrate hazard mitigation policies into land use plans within the planning area
5. Update the plan annually to integrate local hazard mitigation plans and the results of disaster- and hazard-specific planning efforts
6. Educate the public on the risk exposure to natural hazards and ways to increase the public's capability to prepare, respond, recover and mitigate the impacts of these events
7. Utilize the best available data, science and technologies to improve understanding of the location and potential impacts of natural hazards, the vulnerability of building types, and community development patterns and the measures needed to protect life safety
8. Retrofit, purchase, or relocate structures in high hazard areas including those known to be repetitively damaged
9. Establish a partnership among all levels of government and the business community to improve and implement methods to protect property
10. Encourage hazard mitigation measures that result in the least adverse effect on the natural environmental and that use natural processes

Public Works | Administration | Airport | Atlas | Development | Engineering | Fee Schedule | Flood information
County home |  Sitemap |  Departments |  How do I... |  Help me find... |  Public records request |  Contact us |  Employees

Privacy Notice |  Disclaimer |  Terms of Use |  Traduzca al español All inquiries regarding services and all public disclosure requests should be directed to the elected official or department head of the appropriate office. Thank you. For comments regarding the operation of the website, email the Kittitas County Webmaster ‡. Static content last modified on 2011/2/18 Copyright © 2012 - Kittitas County - All Rights Reserved.