Kalamazoo County Hazard Mitigation Plan

Kalamazoo County developed a countywide Hazard Mitigation Plan. The formal process of pulling together the ongoing efforts of myriad people and organizations began in 2002 by Director, Lt. Gordon G. Van Gelder of the Kalamazoo County Office of Emergency Management. In July of 2003, James H. Gorka, of Know Blindspots, LLC was awarded a contract to develop the KCHMP -- covering all natural and man-made hazards affecting Kalamazoo County. Gorka served as Chairman of the Kalamazoo County Hazard Mitigation Planning Committee -- a subcommittee of the Kalamazoo County Disaster Committee (KCDC). The project was completed ahead of schedule and under budget in early 2004, was adopted by the County on July 17, 2004 (again affirmed by the County by resolution (Agenda Item N) on February 7, 2006), and was approved by FEMA on November 7, 2006.

Kalamazoo County Hazard Mitigation Planning Committee Chairman James H. Gorka received the Mitigation of the Year award by the Michigan Emergency Management Association at the 2006 Michigan Emergency Management Association Awards Banquet held Tuesday, October 10th at the Grand Traverse Resort in Traverse City. Gorka was singled out for the outstanding Kalamazoo County Hazard Mitigation Plan which he authored.

Developing the local mitigation strategy was a process through which the vulnerabilities of the community to different types of hazards were assessed, a variety of plans, programs and projects were identified to decrease the magnitude of those vulnerabilities, and decisions were made about how to implement the necessary efforts.

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A hazard is an event or physical condition that has the potential to cause fatalities, injuries, property damage, infrastructure damage, agricultural loss, damage to the environment, interruption to business, or other types of heart or loss.

Mitigation is any action taken to eliminate or reduce the long-term risk to human life and property from natural and technological hazards.

Planning can be viewed as a functional, systematic process of study and analysis leading to a proposed course of action.  The planning process of determining how to reduce or eliminate the loss of life and property damage is the crux of the mitigation strategy process.

Hazard mitigation planning can be defined as a proposed course of action to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to human life and property from natural and technological hazards.  Usually implemented as part of a coordinated mitigation strategy or plan such actions are usually terms either not structural or structural, depending on whether they affect land-use or buildings.  Concurrently, mitigation measures may also be developed that are passive or active in the application.