Just ask anyone involved in emergency management, and they will tell you—developing a hazard mitigation plan (HMP) is no easy task. Neither is updating its contents regularly as required by FEMA. So when it came time to revise its existing multi-jurisdictional HMP, Shasta County, California, enlisted the help of Tennessee-based BOLDplanning, a division of Agility.  

For months, representatives from Shasta County, the City of Anderson, and the Igo Ono Community Services District (IOCSD), along with BOLDplanning subject matter experts, have worked together to update the county’s existing multi-jurisdictional HMP. The project has involved a comprehensive risk assessment for nine potential hazards—dam failure, drought, earthquake, extreme heat, flood, severe storms, volcano, wildfire, and winter weather—and updating the status of previously identified mitigation actions/projects and documenting newly identified ones.  

Shasta County, like other state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments, has the responsibility to coordinate activities relating to hazard evaluation and mitigation and to prepare and submit to FEMA a local HMP. The plan must follow the criteria established in 44 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 201.6 and Section 322 of the Disaster Mitigation Action of 2000 (DMA 2000), Public Law 106-390. 

Compliance with these requirements ensures eligibility for funding under FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) programs. This includes the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP), the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, and the Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) program. FEMA-approved hazard mitigation plans may also be eligible for points under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and its Community Rating System (CRS).

As of late June, FEMA had received documentation from Shasta County confirming the adoption of the Shasta County Multi-Jurisdictional HMP Update 2023. 

On behalf of everyone at BOLDplanning, congratulations! Working with you on this all-important project was an honor and a pleasure. May the updated mitigation plan serve your community well over the next five years. 

Unfamiliar with the planning area? Shasta County is located in northern California, about 160 miles north of Sacramento. It is the third-largest county in the state by total area (3,775.4 square miles of land area) and is home to a population of 182,155 (U.S. Decennial Census 2020). Shasta County is bordered by Modoc, Tehama, Siskiyou, Lassen, Trinity, and Plumas counties. 

The City of Anderson is a Shasta County suburb located 10 miles south of the City of Redding (the county seat) and 138 miles north of Sacramento. The Igo Ono Community Services District (IOCSD) is a California Special District responsible for delivering agricultural water to customers along a 17-mile, 100+-year-old irrigation ditch system within the Igo Ono community.