Mitigation lessens the impacts disasters have on lives and property through hazard avoidance, damage prevention and flood insurance.

Mitigation includes

• wind proofing critical buildings,
• elevating or purchasing flood prone homes and businesses,
• locating residential and commercial development outside flood zones, and
• creating wildfire buffers around development in vulnerable areas.

Mitigation Grants: Florida Comprehensive Hurricane Damage Mitigation Program
The "Florida Comprehensive Hurricane Damage Mitigation Program" offers free home inspections and matching grants up to $5,000 for specific home improvements to qualified homeowners.
Visit http://www.mysafefloridahome.com/ for more information. 

Other mitigation initiatives:

• National Flood Insurance Program 
• Federal Alliance for Safe Homes 
• Wind Mitigation Insurance Incentives 
• Wildfire Mitigation Tips for Homeowners
• National Integrated Drought System 

FEMA and the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) offer several grant programs for which eligible homeowners and businesses may qualify to help with mitigation activities.  Please contact the State of Florida or the City of Jacksonville's Emergency Preparedness Division at 630-2472 for more information.    (Description of FEMA Mitigation Grants)
Click here to find out if your home is in a flood zone.

Duval County Local Mitigation Strategy (LMS)
The LMS is a planning process required by the State of Florida to oversee a plan of mitigation initiatives to help the county be resilient and anticipate and prepare for hazard avoidance.  A draft of the 2010-2015 Duval County's LMS (PDF 409K) is now available for public comment and review through Aug. 20, 2009.  The process is overseen by the Duval County Local Mitigation Strategy Advisory Committee, also known as the Duval Prepares partnership. Members meet quarterly to review and add new projects to the current mitigation initiatives.   For any feedback or comments, please e-mail Laura D'Alisera, Mitigation Planner, at lauraad@coj.net.

For information on what local businesses can do to lessen impacts of disasters, check out Duval Prepares or contact Laura D'Alisera, Emergency Preparedness Division, 630-2472, or lauraad@coj.net.

*This is a large PDF document and may require several minutes to download with a cable modem or DSL connection and up to 30 minutes using a 56 Kbps dial-up modem.