Community Development Hazard Mitigation

Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan

FEMA approved the City of Sweet Home Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan on May 6, 2022. The plan is available HERE. 

The most recent iteration of the mitigation plan was adopted by City Council on April 12, 2022 and is valid for five years. The plan covers each of the major natural and human-caused hazards that pose risks to the City. The primary objectives of this plan are to reduce the negative impacts of future disasters on the community, including: 

1. Reduce the threat to life safety
2. Reduce the thread to Sweet Home buildings, facilities, and infrastructure
3. Enhance emergency response capability, emergency planning, and post-disaster recovery
4. Seek funding sources for mitigation actions
5. Increase public awareness of natural hazards and enhance education and outreach efforts
6. Incorporate mitigation planning into natural resource management and land use planning

This Mitigation Plan is a planning document, not a regulatory document.

About the Plan

The City of Sweet Home’s existing Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan (NHMP) was updated in 2022. NHMPs must be updated every five years.

The City of Sweet Home collaborated with the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) to update the NHMP. The updated NHMP will continue the City’s eligibility for disaster-related funding. A Steering Committee, chaired by the Sweet Home Community & Economic Development Director, Blair Larsen, worked with DLCD staff to update the NHMP. 

Why engage in natural hazard mitigation planning?

• To avoid disasters by reducing or eliminating long-term risk to people, property, and the environment from natural hazards.
• To increase safety and resilience by integrating hazard mitigation into the City’s plans, programs, and policies.
• To maintain eligibility for disaster related funding.

What is a Mitigation Plan?

The City of Sweet Home and surrounding areas are subject to a wide range of natural and human-caused hazards, including: floods, severe storms, landslides, earthquakes, dam failures, hazardous material spills, and many others. Some of these hazard events, such as severe storms, happen to some extent every year. Others, such as earthquakes, may only impact Sweet Home significantly once every few hundred years. The impact of potential future hazard events on Sweet Home may be minor (e.g., a few inches of water in a street) or it may be major, with damages and economic losses totaling millions of dollars.

The impacts of major disasters on communities can be devastating. Total damages may include economic losses, casualties, and disruption, hardships and suffering are often far greater than the physical damages alone. Furthermore, recovery from major disasters often takes many years and some heavily impacted businesses and/or communities may never fully recover. Completely eliminating the risk of future disasters in Sweet Home is neither technologically possible nor economically feasible. However, substantially reducing the negative impacts of future disasters is achievable with the implementation of a pragmatic Hazard Mitigation Plan.

Hazard mitigation reduces disaster damages and is defined as sustained action taken to reduce or eliminate the long-term risk to human life and property from hazards (Source: 44 CFR §201.2 Mitigation Planning – Definitions). This plan has several key elements.

1. Each hazard that may impact Sweet Home significantly is reviewed to determine the probability (frequency) and severity of likely hazard events.
2. The vulnerability of Sweet Home to each hazard is evaluated to determine the likely extent of physical damages, casualties, and economic impacts.
3. A range of mitigation alternatives are evaluated to identify those with the greatest potential to:
   • reduce future damages and losses in Sweet Home,
   • protect facilities deemed critical to the community’s well being, and/or that are deemed highly valuable

For more information, please contact:
Blair Larsen, Community & Economic Development Director
blarsen@sweethomeor.gov
541-818-8036
3225 Main Street
Sweet Home, OR 97386