Multnomah County is vulnerable to many different types of natural hazards, from earthquakes to landslides and floods. The county’s Emergency Management staff are in the process of updating a plan for how to address the risk people, buildings and infrastructure face in the event of a disaster. Multnomah County’s Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan was first adopted in 2006 and this year the plan is being updated to incorporate several important enhancements, including improving the usability and accessibility of the plan.
“Mitigation” is the term used for measures taken that reduce the potential for negative effects from future disasters, like physical damage, economic loss, and casualties. Mitigation planning attempts to find the middle ground between ignoring and overreacting to potential disaster events in a given area.
The 2011 revision of the Multnomah County Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan includes updating hazard information for major natural hazards, like earthquakes and floods; maintaining eligibility for FEMA mitigation grants; and prioritizing mitigation actions based on high risk situations identified in Multnomah County.
The plan update also aims to include community concerns about natural hazards and public preferences about how to reduce risk and loss from such disasters. Multnomah County has set up a short questionnaire in order to collect public input about priorities for the updated Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan. Questions touch on topics like past experience with natural hazards to perceived threat levels of different hazards over the next 20 years.
County residents are encouraged to share their thoughts about natural hazards by taking the online questionnaire.