Last week, Curry County, New Mexico, and Tennessee-based BOLDplanning began the process of updating the County’s existing Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (MJHMP). Hazard mitigation plans, or HMPs, as described by FEMA, are “key to breaking the cycle of disaster damage, reconstruction, and repeated damage.” In fact, the National Institute of Building Sciences now estimates that every dollar invested in mitigation saves six dollars in prevented damages (up from four dollars in previous years).
The work began in Curry County with the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) and plan stakeholders being invited to attend a virtual HMP Kick-off Meeting on Wednesday, May 19, 2021. The meeting, facilitated online, had 25 participants, including representatives from participating Curry County jurisdictions, the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (NM DHSEM), BOLDplanning (namely Emily Long, PCP and Karla O’Grady, PCP), and the public at large. With all questions pertaining to local hazard mitigation addressed, the plan update will be completed over the next few months.
By updating its HMP (last drafted and approved September 2015) and gaining plan approval from FEMA, Curry County and its participating municipalities— the Cities of Clovis, NM, Texico, NM, and the Villages of Grady, NM and Grady, NM —will be eligible to receive federal funding (emergency and non-emergency) for hazard mitigation purposes.
If you are unfamiliar with Curry County, it is located in eastern New Mexico, a farming region in the High Plains, bordered on the east by Texas. According to the U.S. Census Bureau Quick Facts (2019), it is home to 48,954 people with the City of Clovis serving as the County Seat.
Special thanks to Dan Heerding with the Clovis/Curry County Office of Emergency Management, for making the HMP Kick-off meeting such a great success. The BOLDplanning team looks forward to working with you and so many others from Curry County in the months ahead.
