HAZARD MITIGATION
National Flood Insurance Program

- Who needs flood insurance? Everyone. And everyone in a participating community of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) can buy flood insurance. Nationwide, almost 20,000 communities have joined the Program.
- Click here for more information about NFIP
- Check your town's status: http://www.fema.gov/cis/NH.pdf
- Recent regulations emphasize the need for State, Tribal, and local entities to closely coordinate mitigation planning and implementation efforts. The Regional Planning Commissions throughout the state have contracted with the New Hampshire Homeland Security and Emergency Management (NH HSEM) to provide technical support to communities in their region during the formation of hazard mitigation strategies. For the Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) program, local jurisdictions must have an approved mitigation plan to receive a project grant. Plans approved any time after November 1, 2004 will make communities eligible to receive PDM and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) project grants.
- LRPC has assisted in the development of the following Hazard Mitigation Plans:
- Approved by FEMA (as of December 2009) - Alexandria, Alton, Belmont, Effingham, Franklin, Gilford, Laconia, Meredith, Moultonborough
- Under development (as of December 2009) - Bridgewater, Center Harbor, Freedom, Holderness, Sandwich
- Link to HMP At-A-Glance
- Definition: to provide a mechanism for effectively responding to and recovering from the impact of natural or human-caused disasters or emergencies.
- Emergency Operation Plans (EOPs) are developed to comply with the National Incident Management System (NIMS) as developed by the Department of Homeland Security. All municipalities in New Hampshire, in addition to the State itself, are required to have in effect a NIMS compliant EOP. EOPs identify local municipal departmental responsibilities in the event of an emergency, highlight community resources and shelters, establish chain of command, and response plans. Using guidelines developed by the New Hampshire Bureau of Emergency Management, the LRPC has offered to develop EOPs for member communities.