The St. Louis region was hit by intense summer storms last month. Several communities were impacted by flash flooding, and a prominent husband and wife from Alton tragically lost their lives while visiting their property in a neighboring county. If you’re involved in local government, these storms no doubt served as a reminder of how vital it is to prepare for, prevent, and respond to whatever Mother Nature throws our way.
EWG’s Community Planning department is currently producing a St. Louis Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP). The HMP is a FEMA-required five year plan that presents information about natural disasters, levels of risk, and strategies local governments, regional agencies, and school districts can take to reduce the adverse effects of natural hazards, such as tornadoes or floods. The plan covers St. Louis City and County as well as St. Charles, Franklin, and Jefferson counties.
Under new FEMA requirements, each jurisdiction wanting eligibility for hazard mitigation grant funding must not only pass a required resolution, but must also fill out a new questionnaire to demonstrate participation. There are specific questionnaires for counties, cities, school districts, and special districts. The deadline to complete the questionnaire is September 12. In the fall we will post a resolution on our News Blog and in our weekly e-newsletter Local Government Briefings that jurisdictions can use to adopt the HMP.
It is extremely important that all qualifying jurisdictions complete their designated questionnaire for the safety of our region and its residents. Completing the questionnaire is required for towns, cities, counties, school districts, and other agencies to qualify for significant FEMA funding to reduce risks and hazards due to weather, fires, and other natural causes. If jurisdictions do not fill out the questionnaire, they may miss out on significant funding to better minimize hazards like flooding and fires. If you are a part of one of these jurisdictions, be sure that your entity fills out the appropriate survey (and return it to us at hazardmit@ewgateway.org).
Additionally, EWG’s Community Planning team continues to seek public feedback from all residents in these Missouri jurisdictions so the HMP can best assess what issues, concerns, and threats exist in the region. We encourage you to take this separate survey and pass it on to the members of your community. Pro-tip: This would be an ideal post for our Missouri local and county jurisdictions that manage social media pages.