A national mitigation white paper Recommendations for an Effective National Mitigation Effort was recently published and is hosted on NEMA's web site.
Themes I detected include:
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Themes I detected include:
- The need to focus on mitigation
- Partnerships in general
- Public-Private Partnerships
- Truly equal partnerships between feds, state and locals
- Mitigation needs to be a bottom up
- Incentives vs. mandates will work best
- Let's be less bureaucratic in administering the programs (translate that to mean the cost benefit analysis is dreaded by many)
- Preparedness activities that involve the public can create a climate for public involvement in mitigation
Also noted, was while the word "prevention" was used, there was debate on its meaning vs. mitigation.
I've always talked about the fact that while mitigation is a separate activity/phase in emergency management doctrine, there are aspects of mitigation that flow through all the phases--I call it the Golden Thread of mitigation that needs to be woven--in everything we do as emergency managers.
I don't see this White Paper as a game changer, but at least the topic is getting some attention.
Mitigation will be the activity that leads out of repetitive losses, if we get the national gumption to actually do something.
