Mitigation
Mitigation is the ongoing effort to lessen the impact that both natural and man-made disasters have on people and property. Mitigation involves keeping homes away from floodplains, engineering bridges to withstand earthquakes, creating and enforcing effective building codes to protect property from tornadoes and more. Mitigation is defined as "any sustained action that reduces or eliminates long-term risk to people and property from natural or man-made hazards and their effects." This definition distinguishes actions that have a long-term impact from those that are more closely associated with the immediate preparedness, response, and recovery activities. Hazard Mitigation is the only phase of emergency management specifically dedicated to breaking the cycle of damage, reconstruction, and repeated damage.
In practice, mitigation can take many forms. It can involve actions such as:
- Promoting sound land use planning based on known hazards
- Buying flood insurance to protect your belongings
- Relocating or demolishing structures out of the floodplains
- Securing shelves and water heaters to nearby walls
- Installing adequate back-generators for community critical facilities
- Developing, adopting, and enforcing effective building codes and standards
- Engineering roads and bridges to withstand earthquakes
- Using fire-retardant materials in new construction
- Structural Retrofitting of Existing Buildings
- Wildfire Mitigation
- Safe Room Construction
- Community Flood Risk Reduction Projects
- Developing and implementing a plan in your business or community to reduce your susceptibility to hazards
You can learn more about mitigation by viewing FEMA's web site on Mitigation, as well as the State of Connecticut's mitigation efforts found by clicking the CT DEMHS tab on the main page.