The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved $567,000 in grants to fund the update of hazard mitigation plans for 23 Missouri counties and Missouri Rural Electric Cooperatives, according to an announcement from Gov. Mike Parson’s office.
That announcement was focused on the approval of more than $9 million in grants for select school districts — none in Mid-Missouri — to build tornado safe rooms, but the announcement also included the $567,000 in grants for two planning projects under an annual competitive grant program would include Callaway, Miller, Morgan and Osage counties, among others.
Caty Luebbert, spokeswoman for the State Emergency Management Agency, said hazard mitigation plans “help local governments to increase education and awareness on natural hazards and community vulnerabilities.”
Plan specifics vary by location — some areas are more prone to damage from flooding than from an earthquake, for example — but Luebbert said plans “help to identify long-term strategies for risk reduction with input from stakeholders and the public,” and the focus is more on the preparedness and mitigation, as opposed to response or recovery planning.
Luebbert said hazard mitigation plans have to be updated every five years and be approved by FEMA for jurisdictions, school districts and other entities to be eligible to receive FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance Grant Program funding, such as pre-disaster mitigation grants.
Luebbert added the funding will be used by regional planning commissions and city councils in the 23 counties “for project management costs and other costs associated with updating the county plans.”