Jackson and Cape city councils to consider adopting disaster p

Southeast Missouri can be a dangerous place to live.

The region is susceptible to tornadoes. Jackson was hit two years ago; Kelso was hit last month; a tornado in 1949 killed 21 people in Cape Girardeau.

Then there's the floods. Some rise in a flash, taking people by surprise; others swell slowly over time, powerful and steady as homeowners pile sand bags around their property.

And don't forget that the region lies in an earthquake zone.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, much more emphasis has been placed on preparing for disasters.

On Monday night, the cities of Cape Girardeau and Jackson will see the results of some of that emphasis as the city councils consider an all-hazard mitigation plan.

The plan was prepared by the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning Commission for $20,600 and was paid for through Federal Emergency Management Agency funds.

The plan is good for the entire county, but each entity must approve the plan. The county has already approved the plan.

Both cities already had an emergency plan in place, called a Local Emergency Operations Plan.

According to county emergency operations coordinator David Hitt, the local plans are directed more at what to do when disaster strikes. An after-the-event plan.

The mitigation plan is directed more at disaster preparation. A before-the-event plan. It identifies certain areas, perhaps heavily populated areas or hazardous material areas, that could be at higher risk in an emergency.

Jackson fire chief Brad Golden said the regional planning commission did use the city's EOP in its plan.

"The local plans are fairly general," he said. "But the big plan puts it all together."

While there is a lot of red tape and some redundancy involved with the new mitigation plans, Hitt said, the wide scope will help create consistency across the state.

"If each entity came up with a plan to meet the guidelines, if all cities and counties came up with their own plan, you'd have hundreds of ways of doing things," he said.

The motivation behind the plan's adoption is money.

Communities are required to adopt the plan by the end of this month if they wish to apply for future mitigation grants.

FEMA dispersed its funds through state emergency management agencies. In Missouri, there was not enough funding to do a plan for every community, said Randy Scrivner, the state hazard mitigation officer.

Instead, the state contracted through the regional planning commissions.

"That way we were able to do multijurisdictional plans through the counties," he said. "Right now, we have plans working in 103 counties."

Scrivner said the mitigation plans get specific to each community, no matter how small, in terms of flooding. In other disaster areas like earthquakes or droughts, some of the planning is more across-the-board for all communities in the county.

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635