NEWS RELEASE

FROM: BARREN RIVER AREA DEV. DISTRICT

(270) 781-2381 800-598-2381

Work is now beginning on a Hazard Mitigation Plan for the Barren River Area under an agreement with FEMA, the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management, and the BRADD, will involve local governments, emergency responders, planning agencies, and interested citizens. The

plan must be developed for local governments to remain eligible for Federal disaster funds.

BRADD Executive Director Dot Darby-Paschall says the work will build on the Natural Hazards study prepared in 2001 by State Climatologist Stuart Foster in a cooperative effort with BRADD and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture under former Commissioner Billy Ray Smith. This study may be reviewed on the BRADD website.

She said the website http://www.bradd.org/hazard will play an important role in the new planning process. All activities in the process will be posted on the website, which will have provisions for citizen interaction.

Membership for the Regional Mitigation Planning Council is now being solicited from local officials in the Barren River Area. Those involved in existing emergency response activities will be represented. Local officials are being asked to solicit participants with knowledge of the five types of natural hazards most prevalent in the area: a.) flooding and flash flooding from rivers, streams, or storm water drainage failures; b.) tornadoes, straight winds, severe storms, hail, or lightning; c.) cold waves, ice storms, or major snowstorms; d.) heat waves, droughts, wildfires or water shortages; and e.) earthquakes, land-slides, karst plain sinkholes or land subsidence.

FEMA’s objective is to encourage communities in taking steps to pre-mitigate property losses from natural hazards. Such a plan will require cooperative effort from local governments, planning commissions, utilities, and developers. Ms. Darby-Paschall said the current BRADD Councils would be reflecting hazard mitigation in their planning work. These Councils include Infrastructure Development, Transportation Planning, Water Management, and the Regional Planning Council. Technical help in the process will be drawn from the BRADD staff and WKU, particularly the Kentucky Climate Center.

The organizational meeting of the new Council has been called for 2:30 p.m., Thursday, August 26^th, in the BRADD Conference Center.