Emergency Management

Hazard mitigation planning is a central part of our emergency management program.  A county emergency management department is responsible for coordinating and implementing disaster preparedness, response, and recovery efforts within a specific county.  

The Hubbard County Office of Emergency Management is working with U-Spatial at the University of Minnesota Duluth to update the county’s Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP). The plan assesses the natural hazards that pose risk to the county, such as tornadoes, straight line winds, ice storms, blizzards, wildfire, flooding, and extreme temperatures and identifies ways to minimize the damage of future events.

The Hubbard County HMP is a multi-jurisdictional plan that covers Hubbard County, including the cities of Akeley, Laporte, Nevis, and Park Rapids.  The Hubbard County HMP also incorporates the concerns and needs of townships, school districts, and area agencies or organizations participating in the plan. The plan will be updated by a planning team made up of representatives from county departments, local municipalities, school districts and other key stakeholders.  

Hazard mitigation helps us to break the cycle of damage and repair caused by things like flooding, ice storms, and severe wind events that can damage property, stress economies, and threaten life safety in our county.”

Examples of hazard mitigation include:
 Conducting public outreach on severe weather awareness and preparedness
 Limiting or restricting development in floodplain areas
 Removing existing buildings from flood or erosion prone hazard areas 
 Using snow fences to limit blowing and drifting of snow over road corridors
 Constructing tornado safe rooms in vulnerable areas such as mobile home parks
 Burying overhead power lines that may fail due to heavy snow, ice, or windstorms Some mitigation activities may be eligible for future FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance grant funding.