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State Interagency Hazard Mitigation Team (State IHMT)

The focus of the State IHMT is to understand losses resulting from natural hazards, including secondary losses that occur when natural hazard events affect technological systems and critical infrastructure. The team coordinates recommended strategies to lessen loss of life, property, economic and natural resources by maintaining the FEMA-approved and Governor-adopted Oregon Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan. The team continually reviews policies and plans and makes recommendations in appropriate areas with mitigation and education as the cornerstone.
 
The next meeting (which may be virtual, will be open to the public) is scheduled to occur:
July 21, 2022
9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Agenda Pending

2022 Meeting Dates:
October 20
July 21
April 21 (Agenda) (Minutes)
January 20 (Agenda) (Minutes)

2021 Meeting Dates:
October 21, 2021 (Agenda) (Minutes)
July 15, 2021 (Agenda) (Minutes)
April 15, 2021 (Agenda) (Minutes)
January 8, 2021 (Agenda) (Minutes)

Contact Joseph Murray for archived meeting materials. 

Goals of the State IHMT

  1. Coordinate hazard mitigation programs and activities at all levels in the State of Oregon.
  2. Describe and evaluate the natural hazards to which the State of Oregon is vulnerable.
  3. Describe and evaluate state, local government and private sector hazard mitigation policies, programs and capabilities, consistent with federal codes and regulations.
  4. Identify sources of hazard mitigation funding and the procedures that must be followed to obtain such funding; make this information widely available.
  5. Identify and evaluate proposed hazard mitigation strategies, projects and legislation to ensure consistency, and to proactively integrate natural resource goals into mitigation activities.
  6. Continue to develop, implement, monitor, evaluate and update the Oregon Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan.
  7. Provide education and information about natural hazards and steps which can be taken to mitigate against their effects.
  8. Facilitate integration of hazard mitigation into the activities and programs of state and local government agencies, and to the extent practical, into the activities of private sector organizations.
  9. Strive to integrate into natural hazard mitigation: Natural resource protection and restoration, storm water management, fish and wildlife concerns, federally and state listed threatened and endangered plants and invertebrates, floodplain management and protection of water quality for public use.
  10. Promote and facilitate the concept of a disaster resistant economy in Oregon. 

Oregon Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan

The State IHMT is responsible for the Oregon Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan. The plan identifies and prioritizes potential actions throughout Oregon with the goal of reducing our vulnerability to natural hazards. This plan is one volume of the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan for the State of Oregon. For more information and to view this plan, visit the Department of Land Conservation and Development’s Oregon Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan. 
 
OEM also administers Hazard Mitigation Assistance programs to help local and tribal jurisdictions reduce their vulnerability to natural hazards. 

History

Prior to the spring of 1996, many of the agencies that now comprise the State IHMT each had hazard mitigation responsibilities. These agencies only convened as a group following Presidentially-declared major disasters to work with their federal and local government counterparts on the development of Interagency Hazard Mitigation Team Reports or Hazard Mitigation Survey Team Reports.

The Oregon floods in February 1996 prompted Governor Kitzhaber to convene a hazard mitigation policy task group. The IHMT met several times during the spring of 1996.
 
The current membership of the State IHMT grew out of the events of the disastrous autumn and winter of 1996-1997. Their initial emphasis was on mitigating fast-moving debris flows like those that led to the loss of eight lives in Douglas County that winter. On March 4, 1997, Governor Kitzhaber directed OEM to “make the...Interagency Hazard Mitigation Team a permanent body…” and directed the team to establish regular meeting dates.
 
Today the member agencies of the State IHMT generally meet quarterly to understand losses arising from natural hazards and coordinate recommended strategies to mitigate loss of life, property and natural resources. 

Members

The IHMT is comprised of representatives from the following agencies:
 
For information about the State IHMT, contact:
Joseph Murray, Planner
503-378-3929