By MIKE FERGUSON

Baker City Herald

By approving a regional hazards mitigation plan Wednesday, county commissioners won’t be able to fend off the kind of flooding, say, that’s currently wracking and wrecking Iowa communities.

But by signing off on the plan, commissioners might help residents along Pine Creek in Halfway to prevent future floods.

That’s because the plan already approved in draft form by the Federal Emergency Management Agency qualifies the county to apply for federal money to study the Pine Creek system to mitigate potential flood damage.

The plan, presented by Emergency Management Director Mark Bennett to commissioners in a thick notebook, includes Baker, Grant, Union and Wallowa counties, as well as the cities of Baker City, Halfway, La Grande and John Day.

Bennett told commissioners that the plan andquot;identifies actions that strengthen a community’s ability to withstand

the damaging effects of natural hazards,andquot; including fire, earthquake and flood but not, as Commissioner Tim Kerns pointed out, some potential agricultural disasters, including frost.

The plan, Bennett said, is non-regulatory and does not set forth new policy.

The planning process began in October 2006 and was written by a master’s-level student intern at the University of Oregon.

Its focus is on mitigation, defined as andquot;any sustained action taken to reduce or eliminate the long-term risk to human life and property from natural hazards.andquot;

In the Baker County portion of the plan, those measures include:

n Conducting an aquifer study for Pine and Baker valleys.

n Implementing structural and non-structural retrofitting programs for public buildings, historically important structures and critical facilities and infrastructure.

n Developing a warning and emergency/evacuation protocol for vulnerable populations.

Without a plan approved both locally and at the federal level, communities are not eligible for federal disaster mitigation funds, including these programs:

n Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program: Provides funds to states, territories, Indian tribal governments, communities and universities for hazard mitigation planning and the implementation of mitigation projects before a disaster. PDM grants are nationally competitive.

n Hazard Mitigation Grant Program: Provides grants to state and local governments and other eligible recipients to implement long-term hazard mitigation measures and projects after a major disaster declaration. The purpose of this grant program is to reduce the loss of life and property due to natural disasters and enable mitigation measures to be implemented during the immediate recovery period following a disaster.

n Flood Mitigation Assistance: Assists states and communities to take measures that reduce or eliminate the long-term risk of flood damage to buildings, manufactured homes and other structures insurable under the National Flood Insurance Program.

Baker City and Halfway city councils will also be asked to approve the plan, which can be viewed at this Web site: https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/dspace/handle/1794/1931/browse-title.