Desert Hot Springs considers new disaster preparedness plan to unlock federal aid
Shay Lawson
DESERT HOT SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) – The Desert Hot Springs Planning Commission approved a plan that helps the city better prepare for natural disasters — and unlocks critical federal and state funding for emergency improvements on Tuesday.
It’s called the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP) — and while it’s already been approved by FEMA, the city still needs to formally adopt it to make it official.
“The Local Hazard Mitigation Plan is a plan that the city completes to analyze the risk a community has during natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes and fires,” said Deputy City Manager Daniel Porras. “It also makes recommendations to implement various projects for mitigating those risks.”
Tuesday’s vote is the first step of two.
Porras said now that the Planning Commission has recommended approval, the plan will move to the City Council for final adoption.
Porras said this kind of planning made a real difference after Hurricane Hilary.
He said the storm destroyed four major crossings in the city — but because the city already had a hazard mitigation plan in place, it qualified for emergency federal funding to quickly repair the damage.
“We were able to complete the construction or reconstruction of all the four intersections within 270 days of the storm, which made a little bit over $9 million available to the city almost immediately in a reimbursed basis,” Porras said. “Which was able to open the roads and not affect our general budget or any type of budget that we have here in the city.”
The updated plan would replace the one adopted in 2017.
“The biggest difference is one, updating all of our hazards here. So flood, water, fire anything new that has happened here. Then acknowledging all of the improvements that have been done since 2017,” Porras said. “And, what new mitigation measures we can implement based on the changes that have happened over the years.”
According to the city, Desert Hot Springs is now home to more than 32,000 people and continues to grow.
Porras said this plan affects residents in a major way.
“This affects residents in a way that it allows the city to receive funding from the state and the federal government to implement mitigation projects,” said Porras. “Instead of using local city funds that we use to operate.”