All-Hazard Mitigation Plan still seeking responses

Caribou County is working on an All-Hazard Mitigation Plan, which is both an essential community preparedness document, as well as a requirement for a number of federal funding possibilities through government grants.  The All-Hazard Mitigation plan is an inventory of what the residents and officials in the county see as the most pressing, as well as plans to mitigate or respond to those emergencies.  Once the plan has been approved and accepted by the Idaho Office of Emergency Management, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Caribou County and participating jurisdictions will become eligible for a much larger pool of public funds than it currently is.  This funding can be used toward a vast number of projects which will both increase the county’s emergency readiness and safeguard against many hazards (such as floods, power grid failures, cyber attacks, terrorism, fires, earthquakes, etc), as well as improve the infrastructure which exists in the town.  Projects in other localities have included things like creating a fenced greenbelt around the canal system in Blackfoot to prevent drowning deaths, lowering the football field at an Idaho Falls highschool to serve as an emergency watershed, and many other projects that combine creativity with hazard mitigation. The more responses to the survey the county receives, the better able to effective plan for the future it will be.  The first 200 people to complete this survey will be entered into a drawing for prizes, which include first aid kits, emergency supplies, flashlights, and other related items.