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| Few Show Up For Disaster Meeting |
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| News | |||
| Written by Robin Hixson | |||
| Wednesday, 22 April 2009 08:00 | |||
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Finding participants to help develop a disaster prevention and response plan for Miami County is proving to be more than a little difficult. Only a handful of people showed up at a public meeting Thursday to hear representatives of E-Fm Consulting LLC, an emergency and facilities management firm, explain how to develop that plan and how it will help prevent loss from natural disasters such as wildfires, tornadoes, floods, hail and other incidents of severe weather.  To develop this plan, the county must depend on help from several participating jurisdictions including the cities of Paola, Louisburg, Osawatomie and Fontana, all four rural water districts and USDs 367, 368 and 416. Each of these entities is asked to choose someone to attend meetings, acquire and submit requested data, respond to planning team needs, and review and comment on preliminary drafts. Each jurisdiction is asked to host public sessions within its sub-jurisdictions to cultivate resident involvement. Miami County Sheriff Frank Kelly, who oversees Miami County Emergency Management, said the intent is identify natural hazards that most frequently and profoundly affect Miami County and its communities, describe the risks and vulnerabilities, and determine how to implement and maintain the plan in the future. E-Fm personnel have already completed the natural events risk and vulnerability assessment for the county-level plan and has ranked the hazards on a county-wide level. Participants will be asked to review that data, then provide information about any different or unique jurisdictional factors necessitating variations from the overall county plan. Once the risks and vulnerabilities have been identified for all jurisdictions, goals and objectives will be determined, followed by the needed actions and projects. Before being implemented, the completed plan must obtain state approval. E-Fm Principal Dennis Hayward said any county without a state-approved plan cannot qualify for Federal Emergency Management Agency funding to complete projects such as upgrades for levee gates, safe rooms for schools and other disaster mitigation projects. For further information about the disaster mitigation plan, contact Sheriff Frank Kelly, Welter or Undersheriff Mark Schmidt at (913) 294-4444 or E-Fm at (785) 312-9150.
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