Challenges to Achieving Mitigation Goals

Community officials make difficult decisions every day to balance competing priorities for local resources, funding, and staff time. Multiple, competing priorities can be a major challenge to implementing the plan and accomplishing your community’s mitigation goals. Other common challenges include the following:

  • Loss of interest or meeting fatigue after the mitigation planning and adoption process ends on the part of the planning team, stakeholders, and the public
  • Lack of funding and other resources and capabilities, including staff time and technical expertise, to accomplish the mitigation actions
  • Insufficient political will to address the more complicated problems and controversial solutions
  • Apathy created by “disaster amnesia” or the perception that “nothing ever happens here” when time passes without a significant hazard event
  • Disconnect between the mitigation strategy and the day-to-day operations, staff work plans and procedures, and the policies and objectives of other local plans and programs