St. Albans Hazard Mitigation Plan
In Government
Share on Social
West Virginia Region 3 Hazard Mitigation Plan
The Region 3 Hazard Mitigation Plan of 2022 is an update to the 2017 plan. The
Regional Intergovernmental Council updated the plan utilizing a planning committee with
representatives from local government and non-governmental organizations (NGO). The first
version of the regional plan is from 2012.
Region 3 consists of four counties (Boone, Clay, Kanawha, and Putnam), eight cities,
and 17 towns. Region 3 has a total population of 268,045, and covers 2,108 square miles. The
City of Charleston, which is the county seat of Kanawha County, is also the state capitol. This
plan considers all jurisdictions, with the exception of the Town of Glasgow which opted to not
participate in the process, and is therefore considered a multi-jurisdictional plan. The plan has
been prepared in accordance with federal requirements outlined in Disaster Mitigation Act of
2000 (DMA, 2K) which requires local governments to formulate a hazard mitigation plan in order
to be eligible for mitigation funds made available by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA).
For this update of the hazard mitigation plan, the committee selected 13 hazards to
profile. These hazards include:
x Dam and Levee Failure
x Drought
x Earthquake
x Epidemic & Pandemic
x Extreme Temperatures
x Flooding
x Forest Fires
x Hazardous Materials Incidents
x Landslides & Land Subsidence
x Severe Storms
x Tornadoes
x Utility Interruptions
x Winter Storms
The committee added two new hazards, epidemic & pandemic, and utility disruptions,
and separated winter storms from severe storms. The committee also elected to change mass
movements to landslides and land subsidence and wildfires to forest fires. These changes were
made to more accurately represent the risks within Region 3.