Lassen County, the City of Susanville, and the Susanville Indian Rancheria are working to update the 2019 Lassen County Local Hazard Mitigation Plan. The Federal Emergency Management Agency requires that LHMPs be updated every five years to receive Hazard Mitigation Assistance grants. The current Lassen County LHMP expired in January 2024.
The intent is to have a FEMA-approved and locally adopted LHMP by the end of 2024. The Lassen County Department of Planning and Building Services is taking the lead and is responsible for coordinating this effort.
The current LHMP is available on the Planning and Building Services Department’s portion of the Lassen County website.
What is Mitigation:
Mitigation is defined as any action taken to reduce and/or eliminate impacts from hazards and threats. Mitigation can reduce the enormous cost and lengthy duration of disaster response and recovery by protecting citizens and critical facilities.
Hazard Mitigation Plan Purpose and Approach:
The purpose of a LHMP is to identify actions Lassen County, the City of Susanville, and the Susanville Indian Rancheria can take to reduce risk from hazards and threats. This is accomplished by facilitating a Planning Team through a comprehensive planning process to learn about the hazards and threats, understanding the current local capabilities, and then identify appropriate actions that can be implemented to reduce and/or eliminate risk.
Hazard Mitigation Planning Team Members:
The Planning Team representatives include Lassen County, City of Susanville, the Susanville Indian Rancheria, LMUD, Janesville School District, CAL FIRE, Susanville Sanitary District, Bureau of Land Management, and the Lassen County Fire Safe Council. Other agency/organization representatives may be added if necessary based on information and/or project needs.
Hazard and Threats
The Planning Team has identified the following hazards and threats to be included in the updated LHMP: Agriculture Pests/Disease Infestation, Aircraft Accidents, Avalanche, Civil Disturbance, Cyber Security Threats, Dam/Reservoir Failure, Droughts/Water Shortage, Earthquake, Energy Shortage/Outage, Extreme Temperatures, Flood, Hazardous Materials Release, Infectious Disease, Landslide, Infrastructure Pipeline/Storage Hazards, Severe Weather/Storms, Terrorism, Volcano, and Wildfire.
Public Involvement
Public comment is welcome throughout this process, and there will be specific opportunities for public comment as the update is prepared. Public meetings will be announced on the Lassen County website. At the end of the process, public hearings will be conducted by the Lassen County Board of Supervisors, Susanville City Council, and the Tribal Business Council of the Susanville Indian Rancheria to adopt the updated LHMP.
As part of this outreach effort, a public survey has been created to capture relevant public information. Click here for the public survey.
Questions or comments may be addressed to Lassen County Deputy Director of the Planning and Building Services Department Gaylon Norwood by calling (530) 251-8269 or by email at: [email protected]
