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State, Federal Agencies OK County's Hazard Mitigation Plan

Muskogee County, Okla., Emergency Management Director Jeff Smith said compiling the plan and moving it through the approval process was an eight-year ordeal.

Oklahoma (3)1
(TNS) - State and federal approval of Muskogee (Okla.) County's hazard mitigation plan will expand eligibility for grant programs when funding becomes available in the future.

Muskogee County Emergency Management Director Jeff Smith said compiling the plan and moving it through the approval process was an eight-year ordeal. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management signed off on the plan during the first full week of February.

"We actually had written a plan before — that plan was approved back in 2009 — but we found the towns and school districts were not listed in the plan as covered," Smith said, noting a contractor was hired in to correct the oversight. "Time just dragged on, so about four years ago we took it over."

Smith said he has been working with municipal jurisdictions and school districts located within the county to identify natural hazards and compile action items for each hazard. The plan includes at least two action items — or ideas about how to mitigate each known hazard — that can be used to write grants and secure funding to mitigate the hazards identified.

"During our process we would hit a place where the way we were writing the plan and they way they wanted us to write the plan were two different things," Smith said about what seemed to be a moving target. "So we went back and forth there for several years, but we finally got on an even keel with them and got it done."

Smith said the concept for the hazard mitigation plans is that all known natural hazards be identified and analyzed for each governmental subdivision and school district within the county. Once that process is completed, at least two action items are prepared for each action item. "

"We can write grants based on each action item — it's not a competitive grant program, it is first-come, first-served," Smith said. "We will apply when money becomes available, and when it is our turn and the money comes to us, then we will be able to complete those projects — those could be strengthening a bridge or raising a road in the county or putting storm shelters at schools."

A benefit of having an approved plan in place, Smith said, is that eligibility for grant programs that were restricted earlier to unincorporated areas of the county will be expanded. Some past programs Smith cited as previous examples were grants that had been made available for weather radios and storm shelters.

"With this new hazard mitigation plan, it's all inclusive," Smith said. "So eligibility will be expanded to all of those areas when those grants become available in the future."

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