Overview of the Planning Process

Hazard mitigation planning is intended to understand the risks and vulnerabilities associated with natural and manmade disasters. The planning process also identifies actions and long-term strategies that can reduce risks and potential impacts. Hazard Mitigation Plans are a federal requirement under the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 with the goal of reducing the impact and cost of disasters. Hazard Mitigation Plans must be updated every five years, and the last New Orleans Hazard Mitigation Plan was completed in 2015.

The 2020 Hazard Mitigation Plan Update identifies mitigation measures that the City of New Orleans and its planning partners can put into place that may reduce the impact or severity of future hazard events. The Plan is a requirement to access certain types of disaster assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Assistance Programs. The Plan also informs floodplain management planning under the Community Rating System (CRS) to improve CRS score and increase flood insurance discounts under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The Orleans Parish Multi-Jurisdictional Mitigation Plan is maintained through quarterly meetings of the Hazard Mitigation Committee, which is a subset of the Local Emergency Planning Committee. The overall process to create the 2020 Mitigation Plan update included:

• A review of existing plans, data, and studies
• Identifying hazards and completing a Risk Assessment
• Developing a Mitigation Strategy
• Community and stakeholder engagement

Existing Plans and Studies Review

The Orleans Parish Multi-Jurisdictional Mitigation Plan was developed, utilizing the most recent and relevant research, data, and existing plans. Key plans, studies, and guides that were reviewed include:

• 2010 and 2015 New Orleans Hazard Mitigation Plans
• FEMA guides, including the 2013 Local Mitigation Planning Handbook
• Local jurisdiction plans, including:
  • Resilient NOLA
  • Climate Action for a Resilient New Orleans Plan
  • Taking Steps Together on Equity & Climate Change: A Report by and for New Orleanians
  • 2010 New Orleans Master Plan
  • New Orleans Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (CZO)
  • New Orleans City Assisted Evacuation Plan (CAEP)
• Climate change guidance documents and related studies
• Local, state, and federal plans, ordinances, and regulations related to hazard mitigation and resilience

A full list of the existing plans, studies, and data used in the Orleans Parish Multi-Jurisdictional Mitigation Plan can be found in the Bibliography.

Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment

During the hazard identification process, the Planning Team held focus group meetings and surveyed the public about their priorities and concerns related to the risks that affect the City. Using the feedback gained through these outreach efforts, the Steering Committee developed a proposed list of hazards to be addressed in this plan:

• Flooding
• Tropical Cyclones
• Coastal Erosion
• Tornadoes
• Subsidence
• Winter Weather
• Extreme Heat
• Severe Thunderstorms
• Hazardous Materials
• Active Threats
• Infrastructure Failure
• Infectious Disease Outbreak
• Economic Shock

The updated list of hazards reflects information gathered through the HMP Steering Committee, public meetings, and community surveys, showing the changes in public attitudes of risks and priorities for risk reduction. The changes in priorities in this plan include emphasis on Climate Change impacts and actions that include aspects of both climate adaptation and climate change mitigation, as well as hazard mitigation actions that deliver benefits supporting resilience. For each identified hazard, the City in conjunction with the steering committee created a profile that provides a definition, explains how it is measured, describes its geographic extent, surveys any previous occurrence, and evaluates the likelihood and potential impacts of future occurrence. This plan was developed as a multi-jurisdictional plan, reflecting prioritization of the whole community in the preparedness framework. The mitigation strategy is organized to clarify supporting roles for external partners, emphasizing coordination and information sharing in the implementation strategy.

Mitigation Strategy

The Mitigation Strategy for the Orleans Parish Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation is a long-term plan to reduce potential losses identified in the risk assessment. Components of the Mitigation Strategy include:

• Goals
• Mitigation Action Plan
• Prioritized Mitigation Actions
• Implementation Strategy

Identifying New 2020 Actions & Updating 2015 Actions

In order to develop a set of Mitigation Actions for the 2020 Orleans Parish Hazard Mitigation Plan, the Planning Team formed three subcommittees, or Working Groups, to focus on the topics of climate change, water management, and City operations. Stakeholders representing City and regional agencies, non-profit and community-based organizations, and other local partners were invited to participate in one or more of these sub-committees based on their area of expertise. Each of the Working Groups met twice during the Fall of 2020.

The first round of Working Group meetings aimed to develop a new set of Mitigation Actions for the 2020 Hazard Mitigation Strategy. Meeting attendees were asked to brainstorm possible mitigation projects for Orleans Parish, ranging from the lot- and neighborhood-scale interventions to city-wide, regional, or state-level policies. As a follow-up to these meetings, participants were asked to send the City any additional ideas for the new 2020 Mitigation Actions in the week following the meeting. This round of Working Group meetings helped the project team to develop a set of Mitigation Actions, which were then shared with the Working Groups in the second round of meetings for additional feedback. For each of the Actions suggested by Working Group members, the Planning Team identified:

• FEMA Mitigation Action category
• The goal met by the Action
• Action description
• Relevant hazard(s)
• Lead and support agencies
• Preliminary costs
• Funding sources
• Emergency Support Function (ESF)
• Timeframe for implementation

After the Mitigation Actions were filled in by the Planning Team, another round of Working Group meetings were held. At each of the meetings, Working Group participants helped to refine the provided Mitigation Actions, including adding City agencies and organizations to Actions in lead or support roles for implementation and clarifying Action descriptions. The follow-up to the second round of Working Group meetings included sending the full list of 2020 Mitigation Actions, as well as Actions carried over from 2015 to all Working Group participants and asking for written feedback. Feedback gathered in the second round of meetings and written feedback provided by Working Group members were then incorporated into the revised Mitigation Strategy. The resulting Mitigation Strategy included:

• 103 Total Actions
• 71 New Actions
• 32 Carried-over 2015 Action

Finalizing and Prioritizing Mitigation Actions

After developing and refining the 2020 Mitigation Actions from the two rounds of Working Group meetings, the Planning Team created a revised version of the Mitigation Strategy.

In order to prioritize the updated Mitigation Actions, the Planning Team asked Steering Committee members to review the full list of Actions and rank each Action as either a low, medium, or high priority. Steering Committee members were also encouraged to provide feedback on each Action based on the seven STAPLEE (Social, Technical, Administrative, Political, Legal, Economic, and Environmental) criteria. The average ranking and comments based on STAPLEE criteria for each Action were then used to complete the draft Mitigation Strategy.

Community and Stakeholder Engagement in the Planning Process

The City of New Orleans established a mitigation planning organization that encourages input and involvement of the many agencies and organizations responsible for implementing the Update’s action items and/or have information to support the implementation of the mitigation strategy.

The City of New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (NOHSEP) contacted the planning committee via phone and email to request their participation. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, community and stakeholder engagement was conducted by NOHSEP by social media, text messages, and email.

Planning Team: The development of the Orleans Parish Multi-Jurisdictional Mitigation Plan was led by a Hazard Mitigation Planning Team. The Planning Team facilitated the planning process to:

• Ensure that the updated HMP met the requirements of the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000
• Organize and manage steering committee meetings
• Develop and implement the stakeholder engagement process
• Develop the web-based plan interface and integrate the hazard maps and data tables created for this plan with the City’s data management system

The City of New Orleans Planning Team included:

• Hazard Mitigation Office staff
• New Orleans Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness Planners and Geographic Information Specialist
• NOLA Ready Public Engagement Manager
• Department of Information Technology and Innovation GIS Manager and Director of Enterprise Information

Planning Steering Committee: The Planning Steering Committee includes representatives of all the agencies and organizations involved in the planning process. There are three main categories of members:

• representatives of City departments and offices,
• representatives of other jurisdictions who will adopt the Update as their own mitigation plan, and
• representatives of stakeholder organizations who will provide public input during the process and will implement or provide support for the implementation of some action items.

Some of the individuals participate in the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) Hazard Mitigation Sub-Committee and are familiar with many of the issues addressed in the Update. The participants in the Steering Committee are listed below.

This plan was developed as a multijurisdictional plan. The City of New Orleans invited eligible entities to participate as co-signatories to this plan. Each agency or organization signed a letter of intent to participate in the plan development by assigning staff to serve as liaisons to the steering committee, share data and participate actively in all steps of the planning process.

List of Steering Committee Members

Agency/Organization	Primary Representative
Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East	Derek Boese
Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness	Jeffrey Giering
Southern University at New Orleans	Igwe Udeh
University of New Orleans	Monica Teets Farris
Finance New Orleans	Damon Burns
Port of New Orleans	Amelia Pellegrin
CNO – Office of Resilience and Sustainability	Anne Coglianese
CNO – Office of Safety and Permits	Brad Klamer
CNO – Department of Public Works	Meagan Williams
CNO – Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness	Cara Rodrigue
CNO – City Planning Commission	Brooke Perry
New Orleans Regional Planning Commission	Chris Laborde
Committee for a Better New Orleans	Keith Twitchell
Greater New Orleans Foundation	Ella D’Ellio
Foundation for Louisiana	Liz Williams Russell
GNO Inc	Robin Barnes
NOLA Business Alliance	Quinton Messer
Lake Pontchartrain Conservancy	John Lopez
Propeller	Allison DeJong
Tulane School of Public Health	Stephen Murphy
Tulane ByWater Institute	Mark Davis
Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance	Andreanecia Morris
Business Council of New Orleans	Tamara Agins
Entergy New Orleans	Steve Molnar
LA Office of Community Development	Matt Sanders
New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors	Grasshopper Mendoza
Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans	Jason Higginbotham
Housing Authority of New Orleans	Shelly Smith
New Orleans Redevelopment Authority	Seth Knudsen
Orleans Parish School Board	Tiffany Delcour
Tulane University	Lauren Jardell
Dillard University	Nick Harris
Loyola University	Tommy Screen
Regional Transit Authority	Lona Edwards Hankins
CNO – Parks and Parkways	Daniel McElmurray
CNO – Capital Projects Administration	Vincent Smith
CNO – EMS	Shayna Goldfine
CNO – Health Department	Meredith McInturff
CNO – Department of Sanitation	Cynthia Sylvain Lear
CNO – Office of Transportation	Laura Bryan
CNO – Police Department	Louis Faust
CNO – Fire Department	Matt Spector
CNO – Department of Property Management	Martha Griset
CNO – Chief Administrative Office	Courtney Story
CNO – Mosquito Rodent and Termite Control Board	Claudia Riegel
CNO – Economic Development	Ellen Lee

The Steering Committee met on a quarterly basis from June 2019 through November 2020. The meeting dates and attendance are included here below.

Sub-committees: Because mitigation planning needs to review the details of a wide range of programs and activities, subcommittees were created to allow the Planning Steering Committee to focus on overall policy issues and review the findings and recommendations of the experts on the subcommittees.

The first subcommittee is the City Staff Working Group. Its primary duty was to review proposals that would be implemented by the City to ensure that they were appropriate and feasible given the City’s authorities and resources.

The other subcommittees were formed around the topics of Climate Change and Flood Risk. These topics were identified by the Steering Committee as meriting focused discussion due to the complexity and intersecting nature of these issues and their impacts on the community.  These subject matter subcommittees allowed a cross-section of public and private experts to review issues and draft findings and recommendations.

Public Involvement: In addition to the formal Planning Steering Committee and subcommittee work, the City made efforts to obtain input from the public. Because many of the action items, such as purchasing flood insurance and getting building permits, depend on individual involvement, the outreach effort helped educate people on these actions and helped the planners design more appropriate and more effective measures.

The Plan outreach process began in October 2019 with a series of focus group meetings. In November-December 2019, the planning team surveyed the community to get insight into the stakeholder priorities.

The original outreach strategy for the Mitigation Plan utilized in-person Steering Committee, Working Group, and public meetings. In early March, the strategy was shifted to an online process in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The remainder of the meetings were held virtually, leading up to the public comment period on the draft Mitigation Plan in December 2020-2021 and presenting the final plan to the New Orleans City Council.

Full documentation for each meeting in the community outreach process is provided in this section, including meeting dates, meeting locations, a summary of meeting purpose, meeting invitees, and meeting attendees.

Meetings Summary

Meeting #1	Hazard Mitigation Plan Update Kick-Off	January 14, 2020
Meeting #2	City Hall Working Group 1	February 19, 2020
Meeting #3	Steering Committee Meeting 1	April 1, 2020
Meeting #4	Public Meeting 1	April 7, 2020
Meeting #5	Steering Committee Meeting 2	July 22, 2020
Meeting #6	Public Meeting 2	July 29, 2020
Meeting #7	Public Meeting 3	September 17, 2020
Meeting #8	Climate Change Working Group Meeting 1	September 28, 2020
Meeting #9	Water Management Working Group Meeting 1	September 29, 2020
Meeting #10	City Hall Working Group 2	October 2, 2020
Meeting #11	City Hall Working Group 3	October 20, 2020
Meeting #12	Climate Change Working Group Meeting 2	October 21, 2020
Meeting #13	Water Management Working Group Meeting 2	October 22, 2020
Meeting #14	Public Meeting 4	November 19, 2020

Neighboring Community, Local and Regional Planning Process Involvement

The public sector emergency leaders from neighboring parishes were invited to join Orleans Parish Hazard Mitigation Steering Committee. These included Jefferson, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, and St. Tammany Parishes. The Regional Planning Commission and Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authorities were active members of the steering committee. Throughout the planning process, new plans from other agencies and groups were integrated into the broader Orleans Parish Hazard Mitigation Plan.

Program Integration

The Hazard Mitigation Plan is incorporated by reference in the City of New Orleans Master Plan. The HMP sets priorities and identifies actions that occur across many local organizations and individual programs. Through the work of the Steering Committee and community engagement efforts, the updated mitigation strategy attempts to capture the priorities and ongoing efforts of the many organizations working to build resilience in our community. The ongoing meetings of the HMP Steering Committee provide a platform for coordinating efforts, and annual reporting as part of plan maintenance provides a mechanism for monitoring progress towards the community’s risk reduction goals.

Detailed Meeting Documentation and Public Outreach Activities

The following pages contain the meetings and public outreach activities conducted during this hazard mitigation plan update for Orleans Parish.

Leave a Comment

I'd like to leave a comment