Around 30 people attended a hazard mitigation workshop hosted by the North Platte Natural Resources District (NRD) last Tuesday. The purpose of the workshop was to get people thinking about their own jurisdiction's strengths and vulnerabilities in the event there is a disaster.

The workshop was led by JEO Consulting Group out of Lincoln, and the lead presenter Jeff Henson was very impressed with the turnout and level of discussion. "To have this many people from a wide spectrum of disciplines represented at a prilininary workshop is very encouraging."

Henson was encouraged by the variety of disciplines represented. Municipalities, counties, schools, emergency management agencies, roads, fire/EMT, and other were all represented. "When you are working on a project this big, it is easier to accomplish it when you have a wide variety of participants that engaging and motivated."

John Berge, General Manager of the North Platte NRD, was very happy to see all parts of the District represented. "Hazard mitigation is very important to the NRD, and to see representatives from Garden, Morrill, Banner and Scotts Bluff Counties reaffirms to us how important it is to our constituents."

The hazard mitigation plan is a community-guided document that identifies each participating jurisdiction's vulnerability to natural disasters, such as flood, drought, earthquake, wildfire, winter storm, tornado and high wind storm, dam failure, etc. The plan sets goals for each community, establishes mitigation alternatives, and prioritizes projects for each jurisdiction to help alleviate potential damages to life and property when disasters occur. The NRD has been awarded a grant to update the plan and has contracted with JEO Consulting Group to assist in the
plan update process.

For more information, please visit the project website at http://jeo.com/northplattenrdhmp/, or contact the North Platte NRD office at 632-2749.