Hazard mitigation is any action taken before, during, or after a disaster to permanently eliminate or reduce it's long-term risk to human life and property.  Hazard Mitigation is important at both, the individual family & business level as well as county wide as it seeks to prevent the disaster before it occurs or reduce the damage that occurs.

1. Modify the Hazard - remove, reduce, or eliminate it. Actions such as reducing the hazard's size or amount, or control the rate of release of the hazard. Examples for flooding include cloud seeding, slope planting (to reduce erosion), and stream widening or modification to improve water flow. 

2. Segregating the Hazard - "keep the hazard away from people and property." This is often accomplished in floodprone areas through the construction of structural protection measures such as dams, levees, floodwalls, etc. that redirect the impacts of a flood away from people and developed properties. 

3. Prevent or Limit Development in hazard prone or at risk areas. This approach seeks to "keep the people away from the hazard" and includes a variety of land use planning and development regulation tools, such as comprehensive planning, zoning, ordinances, capital improvements planning, disclosure laws, and the acquisition and relocation of hazard-prone properties. 

4. Altering Design or Construction - make property less vulnerable to disaster damage. Also known as "interacting with the hazard," it focuses on engineering structures to withstand potentially destructive impacts. Examples include elevation above flood levels, wind bracing, wet and dry floodproofing measures, and insulation of utility lines. 

5. Early Warning and Public Education - ensure people know about the hazard and how to react.  to ensure that the public is aware of potential hazards, and that proper warning and communication systems are in place to save lives and protect 

The goal of emergency management is to save lives, prevent property damage, and minimize damage to the environment from natural, technological, and human-related hazards.  In order to accomplish this goal, a jurisdiction must understand various aspects of it's geographic and socioeconomic composition (community profile), have knowledge of all the hazards that have and/or could occur (hazard analysis), and establish strategies that can be used to eliminate or reduce the hazards impacts on the jurisdiction (hazard mitigation).  This systematic process is known as Hazard Management and comprises efforts to reduce known hazards risk and impact to the jurisdiction.

Osceola County’s Hazard Management Plan

The Osceola County Hazard Management Plan was originally developed  in 2016 by Osceola County Emergency Management with the assistance of the Michigan State Police, Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division.  This original plan was adopted by the Osceola County Board of Commissioners via resolution ##-###-## in 20## and approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (F.E.M.A.) later the same year.  It's comprising documents include a Community Profile, Hazard Analysis, Mitigation Strategy, and other sections that are used by our Local Emergency Planning Team (L.E.P.T.) to proactively implement hazard management programs.  In addition, Osceola EMD maintains a dedicated service component within it's program for such.  

Although the Osceola County Hazard Mitigation Plan has officially passed it's F.E.M.A. expiration date, it remains as our active document locally for the purpose of hazard analysis and mitigation purposes.