Mitigation Directorate

About the Mitigation Directorate

What We Do
Who We Are
Mitigation’s Value to Society
Divisions
Programs

David I. Maurstad - Director Mitigation Directorate

Cover of Greensburg, KS Tornado Damage Investigation Tornado Damage Investigation - Greensburg, KS - Final Report (PDF 582KB, TXT 35KB)

What We Do

The Mitigation Directorate manages the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and a range of programs designed to reduce future losses to homes, businesses, schools, public buildings and critical facilities from floods, earthquakes, tornadoes and other natural disasters.

Mitigation focuses on breaking the cycle of disaster damage, reconstruction, and repeated damage. Mitigation efforts provide value to the American people by creating safer communities and reducing loss of life and property. Mitigation includes such activities as:

Complying with or exceeding NFIP floodplain management regulations.
Enforcing stringent building codes, flood-proofing requirements, seismic design standards and wind-bracing requirements for new construction or repairing existing buildings.
Adopting zoning ordinances that steer development away from areas subject to flooding, storm surge or coastal erosion.
Retrofitting public buildings to withstand hurricane-strength winds or ground shaking.
Acquiring damaged homes or businesses in flood-prone areas, relocating the structures, and returning the property to open space, wetlands or recreational uses.
Building community shelters and tornado safe rooms to help protect people in their homes, public buildings and schools in hurricane- and tornado-prone areas.

Who We Are

Hazard Mitigation is sustained action taken to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to people and their property from hazards and their effects.

The Mitigation Directorate was established on November 29, 1993. At that time, Mitigation became the cornerstone of emergency management, for the first time in the history of federal disaster assistance. The mission of the agency has shifted significantly since 1993, most notably through the creation of a separate and distinct Mitigation Directorate. The Mitigation Directorate's partners include a broad spectrum of stakeholders in federal, state, tribal and local government and the private sector. Partners also include professional associations and non-governmental groups involved in public policy and administration, insurance, higher education, the building sciences and urban planning.

Mitigation’s Value to Society

Mitigation creates safer communities by reducing losses of life and property.
Mitigation enables individuals and communities to recover more rapidly from disasters.
Mitigation lessens the financial impact of disasters on individuals, the Treasury, state, local and tribal communities.

Divisions

The Mitigation Directorate is comprised of three divisions: Risk Analysis, Risk Reduction and Risk Insurance.

The primary functions of these divisions include:

The Risk Analysis Division applies engineering and planning practices in conjunction with advanced technology tools to identify hazards, assess vulnerabilities, and develop strategies to manage the risks associated with natural hazards.
The Risk Reduction Division works to reduce risk to life and property through the use of land use controls, building practices and other tools. These activities address risk in both the existing built environment and in future development, and they occur in both pre- and post-disaster environments.
The Risk Insurance Division helps reduce flood losses by providing affordable flood insurance for property owners and by encouraging communities to adopt and enforce floodplain management regulations that mitigate the effects of flooding on new and improved structures.

Programs

The Mitigation Directorate’s programs are significant components of the Nation's emergency management system. The Directorate's statutorily authorized programs include: