MIFFLINTOWN — Juniata County officials were joined by local community members Wednesday to discuss hazards that plague the community.

State College-based MCM Consulting Group representative Adam Leister led the meeting, which outlined steps to move forward with updating a countywide hazard mitigation plan.

Leister said the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 requires all local jurisdictions to have a mitigation plan in place in order to receive certain types of disaster assistance and hazard mitigation funds.

Municipalities must submit a plan in order to receive government reimbursements for damages.

“If we don’t have those plans for either the municipality or the county, we won’t even be eligible,” said County Commissioner Alice Gray.

The current hazard mitigation plan was adopted by Juniata County Commissioners and is updated every five years.

The last update was in 2020.

Jurisdictions can review the plan each year, review all mitigation actions and look at progress reports for each municipality that has participated on project opportunities as part of the hazard mitigation planning process.

“If we do annual maintenance or annual reviews for the hazard mitigation plan that captures any major emergency or disaster,” explained Leister. “So we’re not looking at a five year window at that point we’re looking at a one year window…it’s much easier to keep track of things that have gone on in a one year period as opposed to a five year period.”

Annual reports are required by the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, those reports can also be submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to have on record.

These organizations support citizens and emergency personnel in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from all hazards.

There is a risk assessment done to develop a list of natural and manmade hazards, the team looks at previous hazards that have occurred in the Juniata County area. They discuss where the hazards have occurred and what they impacted. The team cross references past occurrences to determine the probability of a hazard reoccurring.

The hazard mitigation plan contains a lot of moving parts to complete and make to the standard of keeping everyone safe and the update process is a team effort as municipalities and the community are encouraged to get involved.

When asked about what he thought the biggest priority was for the hazard mitigation plan, Bill Hummel, the Emergency Management Coordinator, shared, “Probably input from the municipalities. Everyone in the municipalities has experience on what affects their particular area. What might be important in one area is totally different from another area.”

The municipalities can complete different surveys and assessments.

There is a capability assessment, which looks at what the capabilities are for each local jurisdiction, municipality, borough and township, a hazard mitigation worksheet, where they identify what hazards impact their jurisdiction and how those hazards have changed from the previous plan — have they increased, decreased, or stayed the same, and a mitigation opportunity form, which covers what mitigation projects and/or structural or infrastructural projects each municipality has planned that could reduce the vulnerability of any hazard in the plan for their jurisdiction.

Public involvement is also important. Members of the community can help identify hazard areas in their municipality making for a broader coverage of issues, Leister said.

Both municipalities and community members can provide input into the drafting of the plan, at that step the plan will be accessible to all members of the public in Juniata County.

“If you have a good plan, then it’s not really much of an emergency anymore, so that’s probably the most important thing — just having a good plan in place,” explained Thompsontown Mayor Ken Hart.

The next steps for the hazard mitigation plan include a mitigation strategy section to be completed today, the drafting of the plan is scheduled for Oct. 14 with a public comment period from Nov. 7 to Dec. 12.

The draft is slated to be submitted to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency mid-December and will be submitted to the Federal Management Agency in the new year.