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Mitigation includes any activity which will prevent an emergency or disaster, reduce the chance of it happening, or reduce the damaging effects of unavoidable emergencies or disasters. For example, when you purchase fire or flood insurance for your home, you are “mitigating” against the potential effects from these types of incidents. Other activities involved in mitigation include installing hurricane shutters on your home, building a storm shelter in your basement, equipping your home with fire extinguishers, keeping a sump pump in good working order, or having an emergency generator to provide power during an emergency.
Analyze the risks. Look around your home and your community. There are many factors to be considered when attempting to determine what dangers exist from natural hazards, technological hazards, or national security hazards. What can be done to minimize or prevent an emergency or disaster from occurring?
Technological Hazards
Technological hazards or human-made threats represent a category of threats or events that include hazardous materials incidents at fixed facilities, hazardous materials incidents resulting from transportation accidents, radiological incidents at fixed facilities, radiological incidents resulting from transportation accidents, structural fires, which can also represent hazardous materials incidents at fixed facilities, and power or communications failures.
Questions to ask yourself might be:
- Do you live near a railroad line, and if so, what is transported on that line?
- Do you live near a major highway, and if so, what is transported on that highway?
- Do you live near a chemical plant or a refinery?
- Do you live near an industrial park where hazardous chemicals are used in manufacturing?
- Is there a nuclear power plant in or near your community?
Natural Hazards
Natural hazards represent the single largest category of repetitive threats capable of affecting any area of the country at any time. They can be localized or widespread, predictable or unpredictable, and can cause minimal to devastating damage. Depending upon the severity of an event, they can cause extensive loss of life and significant injuries to many people. Depending upon the severity, they can also have a long-term impact on infrastructure (roads, bridges, utilities, structures), and social order
Questions to ask yourself might be:
- Do you live in an area of the country that is subject to earthquakes, or floods, landslides, or severe weather, such as tornados, or hurricanes, or tsunamis?
- What about winter storms? Do you live where you can experience extremes in temperature or snow fall, or ice storms?
- Do you live near a river, and does it have a history of flooding?
- Do you live near a dam or a levy, and do you know if it has a history of failures? How is it constructed?
- Do you live within a thousand feet of a coastline at or near sea level?
- Can you see a mountain which is an active or nearly dormant volcano?
Actions you can take include:
- Installing lightning rods on the highest point of a home or other building.
- Buying flood or crop insurance.
- Not building in a floodplain or other flood prone areas unless you elevate and reinforce your home to prevent or reduce damage.
- Installing storm shutters over windows and doors in hurricane prone areas.
- Building a storm shelter in the basement of a home or other building in tornado prone areas.
- Reinforcing structural elements of a home or other building in earthquake prone areas.
- Reinforcing or rebuilding levees in areas with levees prone to failure.
- Equip your home with a back up power generator located in a safe area where it won’t be flooded or be subject to wind damage.
- Not building within site of an active volcano, even though it hasn’t erupted in tens to hundreds of years.
National Security Hazards
A national security hazard can include any catastrophic natural disaster, such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, in the Southeastern U.S., civil disorder, widespread terrorism, or war.
We live in very turbulent times. A “national security” threat could also come from an act of war against the territory of the United States, civil unrest due to unpopular actions being taken by our government, or acts of domestic or international terrorism being perpetrated by individuals who desire to use violence to achieve a political goal.
Chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosives agents can be used separately or together as part of acts of terrorism. While it is not possible for citizens to be able to prepare for or prevent all acts of terrorism, it is important for us to be aware of the potential for their occurrence, and to mitigate against them to the extent possible.
Analyzing what your risks are is a necessary first step before you can mitigate against these hazards.
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