To include its citizens in developing a new hazard mitigation plan, Catawba County, N.C., held public meetings to get feedback and ideas from its community. Some of the information that came from meetings involved the development of a new public-private partnership and learning about citizen efforts involving Community Emergency Response Teams.

"Obviously we don't have all the information that we need. Citizens live there - they know what the hazards are," said Mary George, assistant planning director of Catawba County.

The county developed a connection with the Contingency Planning Association of the Carolinas (CPAC), which is a professional peer group that shares information, education and resources in contingency planning in North and South Carolina, according to its Web site. A CPAC representative attended the meeting to develop a relationship with the county.

Go to Emergency Management magazine's Web site for more information about Catawba County's mitigation planning meetings.