2004_1011_Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Ramsey County Division of Emergency Management &Homeland Security Judsoh M. Freed, CBCP — Director 50 West Kellogg Boulevard Suite 913 RCGC-West St. Paul, MN 55102 Friday, September 10,2004 Dear Administrators, Date: 10111104 I�� ounty H�ard �i�i�at�� PI� Tel: 651-266-1020 Fax: 651-266-1019 As you are by now aware, the Disaster Miti�ation Act of 2000 requires every county and community in the nation to create a pre-disaster mitigation plan. The Act states that such an effort "reinforces the importance of mitigation planning in both pre and post-disaster situations, and emphasizes planning for disasters before they occur." These plans must be coordinated with neighboring communities, and must address a myriad of possible hazards such as extreme temperatures, infectious diseases, karst, precipitation, severe summer storms and tornadoes, wild and forest fires, technological hazards, and of course, terrorism and domestic preparedness. The plan is due to the federal government on or before November 1,2004. There is a planning committee currently assessing the risks to Ramsey County, and to decide what our maj or focus areas should be. The committee is comprised of local public safety officials from throughout the county, as well as public health, IT/IS departments, private businesses, airport officials, and local emergency managers. Public meetings will be held in September to allow the public to review and comment on the draft version of the plan. Public Safety Sensitive info will be withheld from public versions of the plan. In addition, committee members, public safety members, and others have completed a survey of areas of concern. A similar survey for the public is on our website. It seemed logical, given the requirement that the plans be well coordinated, that a single, countywide planning document be developed. The Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, being charged with developing the mitigation plan from the County's perspective and having a full time staff inember dedicated to the process, took the lead on this concept and has begun this multi-disciplinary, cross jurisdictional planning process. We invite you to join with us in this effort. The Division will coordinate and handle the writing, editing, and approval processes — as well as coordinate the required meetings, conduct required research and due diligence. The result will be a single, countywide, all- hazards pre-disaster mitigation plan for all of us. Your municipality is certainly free to choose to either join in the multi jurisdictionplan or develop your own independently (as St. Paul has done). Your jurisdiction may also opt to not develop a plan at all and forgo any future mitigation funds. If any jurisdictions do opt out, the countywide plan will still apply to any other jurisdictions that opt in.