FEMA has released updates for two of its resilience and preparedness resources. First, FEMA published an updated edition of its Local Mitigation Planning Handbook, which helps local governments and other stakeholders develop or update hazard mitigation plans. Second, FEMA’s Hazus program has released a new Hazus Inventory National Database to assist emergency planners to better understand the impacts of natural disasters.

Local Mitigation Planning Handbook

FEMA’s Local Mitigation Planning Handbook is a plain-language tool to help local governments and emergency planners develop or update hazard mitigation plans. It gives guidance, case studies, definitions, and resources that help make mitigation planning easier. Updates to the handbook include new material on how to plan for climate change and other future conditions. Mitigation planning provides a framework community stakeholders can build on to lessen the impacts of natural disasters. By encouraging whole-community involvement, assessing risk and using a range of resources, local governments and emergency planners can reduce risk to people, property, and the community overall. Access the updated handbook below.

Hazus Inventory National Database

The Hazus program is a nationally standardized risk modeling methodology. It identifies areas with high risk for natural hazards and estimates physical, economic, and social impacts of earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and tsunamis. The Hazus Inventory National Database was designed to provide emergency planners with a comprehensive nationwide dataset of the Hazus Inventory state databases. Traditionally, the state and territory databases use SQL Server technology to store state data organized by state boundaries, with a single database per state. The new dataset bypasses this step and provides users with an easily accessible nationwide database of the Hazus Inventory and their associated vulnerability attributes. The dataset was created to make natural hazard inventory data more accessible to non-Hazus users and to provide reference data for the state databases released from FEMA's Hazus Program. Additionally, Hazus can be used in conjunction with FEMA’s other risk modeling tools, such as the National Risk Index. Read more about the Hazus program at FEMA and access a fact sheet below.