Columbia County Multi-Jurisdictional
All Hazards Mitigation Plan

Hazard mitigation planning is a proactive effort to identify actions a community can take to reduce the dangers to life and property from natural hazard events such as flooding, severe winter weather, hurricanes and tornadoes. In the communities of the eastern region of New York, hazard mitigation planning tends to focus most on severe winter weather and flooding, the most likely natural hazards to impact these communities.

The Federal Disaster Mitigation Act (DMA) of 2000 requires all jurisdictions that wish to be eligible to receive Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding for hazard mitigation grants to adopt a multi-hazard mitigation plan and update this plan in five-year intervals. FEMA defines a Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) as the documentation of a state or local government evaluation of natural hazards and the strategies to mitigate such hazards. Columbia County received a $150,000 Federal FEMA grant through the New York State Department of Homeland Security and Environmental Services (NYS DHSES) to update its 2018 Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP). The multi-jurisdictional all hazards Mitigation Plan for Columbia County is designed to meet the requirements of the DMA.

The HMP identifies critical community assets and evaluates the risk from natural hazards at these locations. The plan also includes a process to develop and prioritize mitigation strategies to address the hazards impacting the community. The planning process includes updating data, maps, tables, and mitigation goals and strategies from the 2018 Hazard Mitigation Plan for the required 2024 5-year update. The update incorporates information from the 2019 New York State Hazard Mitigation Plan (NYS HMP) to address all-natural hazard risk and vulnerability assessments including future impacts due to climate change. Columbia County recognizes climate change as a factor that will affect weather patterns, flooding extent, habitat, and species distribution, and ultimately impact the ability to recover from disaster and risk to the citizens. In addition to the County HMP update, each jurisdiction within Columbia County will have an updated annex appended to the plan, with unique information for each community.

Several notable changes to the 5-year update will include:

• Revised goals and objectives for Hazard Mitigation Planning
• Expansion of natural hazard risk to include climate change
• Addition of environmental and societal community assets vulnerable to identified hazards
• Expanded public participation through involvement of Environmental Justice Communities and Stakeholders
• Clearly defined and systematically prioritized mitigation strategies and actions

A resiliency vision for Columbia County includes empowering the residents, neighboring communities and City/Village/Town Leaders to make near, mid- and long-term changes that will reduce future climate change impacts, protect its vital community assets, and adapt to changes already occurring. The mitigation actions included in the 2024 Hazard Mitigation Plan will complement and support this resiliency vision.

We have developed a survey of natural hazards for each community. To take the survey, go here:

Survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PVRWV2C

Additionally, our consultants have developed a cloud-based platform for viewing community assets and other data layers in each jurisdiction and for the County as a whole. If you would like to add a community asset that is not included for your community, you can add by using the simple form at the bottom right corner of the tool.

Arc GIS Community Asset Tool:

https://tighebond.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/d7ac4ffcbc0544c18810ca7ffdccaaf2