Hardin County, Iowa is at risk to a wide range of natural and manmade hazards. Some examples include tornadoes, floods, winter storms, dam failures, chemical releases, agricultural disease, and more. In response to these risks, the Hardin County Iowa Emergency Management Commission, in collaboration with JEO Consulting Group, Inc., is seeking to better understand how these hazardous events impact the area in order to increase community resilience. To that end, Hardin County Emergency Management will be updating its multi-jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) over the next year, with the goal of reducing risk to hazards before they happen.

A hazard mitigation plan is a community-guided document that identifies vulnerability to hazards and mitigation projects to reduce or eliminate this vulnerability. Having an approved and updated plan enables your community to be stronger and more resilient by:

1. Reducing your community’s risk and impacts from disasters,

2. Gaining eligibility for pre- and post-disaster mitigation grants, and

3. Building partnerships within your community and across Hardin County.

Residents, communities, schools, fire departments, hospitals, and more from Hardin County are invited to participate in this process by attending meetings and providing information for the plan.

For more information about Hardin County Emergency Management, please visit their website here.

This planning process includes public meetings to provide an opportunity for participants and interested stakeholders to learn about the plan and provide input. In order to be a participant in the plan, FEMA requires at least one representative from your jurisdiction to attend planning meetings.

The Round 1 Meeting took place on May 16th. If your jurisdiction was unable to make it to the meeting but still wishes to participate, please contact Anthony Kohel at (402) 474-8753 or akohel@jeo.com.

You can access and download your jurisdiction’s meeting worksheets by visiting this Google Drive link: https://bit.ly/HardinCounty-GoogleDrive

A Public Survey has been created to better understand the impacts and concerns of stakeholders in Hardin County. We encourage you to share it with residents, workers, and business owners throughout the county. If you utilize social media or have a website, please share through those channels as well. 

The public survey can be accessed here: https://forms.office.com/r/uRrp3YM3a6

The currently effective Hardin County Hazard Mitigation Plan, approved in 2018, is available for download below. 

2018 Hardin County HMP