Hazard Mitigation Committee

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

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: 

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