Hazard mitigation is defined as any cost-effective action(s) effective to reducing, limiting, or preventing vulnerability of people, property, and the environment to potentially damaging, harmful, or costly hazards. Hazard mitigation measures fall into three categories:

• Keep the hazard away from people, property, and structures.

• Keep people, property, and structures away from the hazard.

• Reduce the impact of the hazard on the victims.

Hazard mitigation measures must be practical, cost-effective, and environmentally and politically acceptable. Actions taken to limit the vulnerability of society to hazards must not be more costly than the value of anticipated damages.

The purpose of the Pennington County Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan is to fulfill federal, state, and local hazard mitigation planning responsibilities consistent with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s guidelines. This Plan will promote mitigation measures; implement short/long range strategies to minimize suffering, loss of life, damage to infrastructure, and damage to property; eliminate or minimize conditions which would have an undesirable impact on the citizens, economy, environment, and the well-being of the county. This Plan will educate and facilitate communication with the public, build public and political support for mitigation activities, and develop implementation and planning requirements for hazard mitigation projects.

In October of 2000, the Disaster Mitigation Act (DMA2K) was signed to amend the 1988 Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. Section 322 of the Disaster Mitigation Act requires local governments, as a condition of receiving federal disaster mitigation funds, to have a natural hazard mitigation plan in place.

Mitigation plans must be updated every five years to demonstrate that progress has been made toward meeting the community’s mitigation goals and ensure the plan continues to be an effective mitigation tool to meet the needs of the county and the communities located within.

With the current Pennington County Mitigation Plan set to expire September 2024, we anticipate the draft of the update will be ready for public review Spring 2024. Please check the updates page to see announcements and follow our progress.