Pre-Disaster Mitigation Plan Update

Find the pre-disaster mitigation draft plan in the "documents" section on the right-hand side.

From wildfires and blizzards to floods and drought, Missoula County experiences its share of hazards. The Office of Emergency Management is updating the local Pre-Disaster Mitigation Plan to better help the County and its residents prepare for and mitigate potential disasters. Staff started with a survey to better inform our planning process about the hazards that concern you most. You can see some of the "Selected Results" and the draft pre-disaster mitigation plan in the "documents" section on the right-hand side.

Staff have preliminarily provided explanations to some of the top responses in the survey in the "News Feed" section below. They also hosted a pre-disaster planning meeting on June 21, and the draft pre-disaster mitigation plan was open for comment until Dec. 7. Mitigation strategies are wide-ranging and include everything from elevating or removing existing infrastructure from flood-prone areas to educating residents on how to prepare their homes for a disaster.

The pre-disaster plan, a federal requirement that’s updated every five years, goes through a detailed process of analyzing, ranking and profiling all natural hazards in a geographic area. Through this analysis, Missoula County and City can gain a better understanding of the probability of certain natural disasters and the impacts of past disasters. This analysis helps local government and the public better understand not only what is most likely to occur, but also what potential impacts those disasters could have on critical infrastructure, private property and our communities. The most important component of the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Plan is developing mitigation strategies that aim to minimize the impacts of these disasters.

The draft plan was open for public review until Dec. 7. The Missoula County commissioners approved the plan on Feb. 22 pending FEMA's final edits. After FEMA's revisions, the next and final step is for the Missoula City Council to review and approve the plan.