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:
January 20, 2022
9:00 A.M.. - 11:30 A.M.
2022 Meeting Dates:
January 20
April 21
July 21
October 20
Goals of the State IHMT
- Coordinate hazard mitigation programs and activities at all levels in the State of Oregon.
- Describe and evaluate the natural hazards to which the State of Oregon is vulnerable.
- Describe and evaluate state, local government and private sector hazard mitigation policies, programs and capabilities, consistent with federal codes and regulations.
- Identify sources of hazard mitigation funding and the procedures that must be followed to obtain such funding; make this information widely available.
- Identify and evaluate proposed hazard mitigation strategies, projects and legislation to ensure consistency, and to proactively integrate natural resource goals into mitigation activities.
- Continue to develop, implement, monitor, evaluate and update the Oregon Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan.
- Provide education and information about natural hazards and steps which can be taken to mitigate against their effects.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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:
- Department of Administrative Services (DAS)
- Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA)
- DCBS-Building Codes Division (BCD)
- DCBS-Insurance Division
- Oregon Military Department-Office of Emergency Management (OEM)
- Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)
- Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM)
- Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW)
- Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF)
- Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI)
- Oregon Health Authority (OHA) State Public Health Division
- Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD)
- Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD)
- Public Utility Commission (PUC)
- Department of State Lands (DSL)
- Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT)
- University of Oregon, Emergency Management and Continuity
- University of Oregon, Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience
- Water Resources Department (WRD)
For information about the State IHMT, contact:
Joseph Murray, Planner
503-378-3929