If your Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) is out of date—they expire every five years—you certainly are. Only states, territories and tribes with current, FEMA-approved HMPs are eligible to receive funds through the Agency’s Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) Program. And, these precious dollars can go a long way toward supporting mitigation activities to strengthen the resilience of your whole “community.”
In 2018 alone, FEMA awarded 1,598 grants totaling more than $930 million.
Currently, FEMA administers three programs that provide funding for eligible mitigation planning and projects to reduce disaster losses, and protect life and property from future disaster damages. The three programs are the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP); the Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) Program; and the Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) Program.
Per FEMA:
- HMGP assists in implementing long-term hazard mitigation planning and projects following a Presidential major disaster declaration
- PDM provides funds for hazard mitigation planning and projects on an annual basis
- FMA provides funds for planning and projects to reduce or eliminate risk of flood damage to buildings that are insured under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) on an annual basis
Hazard mitigation planning is a critical phase of FEMA’s Emergency Management process. It’s also one that even with outside, expert assistance, can be tedious and time-consuming. So, if your HMP is going to expire in the next 18-24 months, you need to be thinking ahead. Now.
The entire planning process usually takes about a year (or more) to complete. Delays in data collection, running HAZUS®-MH maps, and obtaining FEMA approval can slow things down even further.
If a year (or more) sounds like a long time, it’s really not. Especially when you consider all the Federal funding you might be missing out on by not having a current, FEMA-approved HMP. Don’t leave mitigation dollars on the table. Get the process started as soon as possible.
