County adopts hazard mitigation plan

By TOM KANE

HONESDALE, PA - How do you mitigate a hazard? By being prepared for it. By knowing how past hazards happened, where they happened and what can be done as they happen and before they happen.

In other words, by having a plan to deal with hazards resulting from floods, storms, droughts and other such weather and catastrophic events.

Efforts on the part of a lot of people in Wayne County over the past year and a half, notably by Frank Smith and his staff at the county’s Emergency Management Agency (EMA) office, have resulted in a 629-page manual called the Wayne County Hazard Mitigation Plan.

“We met with a lot of people in the townships and boroughs, in county government, in other counties and with federal officials to get their input in putting this thing together,” Smith said. “It was an exhausting and thorough process.”

The county commissioners officially adopted it on May 1 at their weekly meeting.

“This approval makes it official in the eyes of the Federal Emergency Management Authority (FEMA) and makes it possible to apply for federal grants to implement what’s in this plan,” Smith said. With this new plan, a pool of funds is available from FEMA that can be tapped into at any time.

“If a township wants to do some pre-disaster mitigation projects, they can apply for some of this money and won’t have to wait months for the money to flow,” Smith said, provided they adopt a similar plan soon.

“We expect all the municipalities in the county will adopt this plan and not do their own,” commissioners chair Brian Smith said.

“What’s especially good about this is that you don’t have to wait for a disaster to get funding for mitigation,” said Lois Powderly, assistant EMA coordinator, who was one of the chief architects of the plan.

Brian Smith thanked the emergency management staff for their efforts. “We realize how much work this took to complete and we commend you and your staff for making it happen.”