MADERA COUNTY — The Madera County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services (Sheriff’s OES) invites the public to get involved in helping your community be hazard-ready.
Your participation is requested in updating the Sheriff’s OES 2011 Local Hazard Mitigation Plan on Wednesday, Mar. 15.
Floods, drought, wildfires, earthquakes, and severe weather are just a few of the hazards of concern to Madera County. While natural hazards such as these cannot be prevented, a Hazard Mitigation Plan forms the foundation for a community’s long-term strategy to reduce disaster losses by breaking the repeated cycle of disaster damage and reconstruction.
Additionally, only communities with a FEMA-approved Hazard Mitigation Plan are eligible to apply for both pre- and post-disaster mitigation grant funding.
The people most aware of potential hazards are the people who live and work in the affected community. In addition to plan participation by local, state and federal agencies, the Sheriff’s Office is seeking enthusiastic, community-minded residents to be part of the OES’s Local Hazard Mitigation Planning project.
Nationwide, taxpayers pay billions of dollars annually helping communities, organizations, businesses, and individuals recover from disasters. Some disasters are predictable and, in many cases, much of the damage can be reduced or even eliminated through hazard mitigation planning.
The Sheriff OES is partnering with the City of Madera, City of Chowchilla and special districts to develop an update to the Plan.
The Sheriff’s Office encourages attendance and participation of the general public at their upcoming public meeting to kick off the project on Wednesday, Mar. 15, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Madera County Emergency Operations Center at Sheriff’s Headquarters, 2725 Falcon Drive in Madera.
For additional information, please contact OES Sergeant Joseph Wilder at (559)-675-7770 ext. 231 or email at jwilder@co.madera.ca.gov.
