Polk County Local Mitigation Strategy (LMS) Five-Year Update (2025)
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Polk County Local Mitigation Strategy (LMS) Five-Year Update (2025)
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) defines mitigation as “any sustained action taken to reduce or eliminate the long-term risk to human life and property from hazards”. Hazard mitigation focuses attention and resources on community policies and actions to produce cumulative benefits over time. A mitigation plan states the goals and actions a community intends to follow to reduce vulnerability and exposure to future hazard events. A systematic process centered on participation of residents, businesses, public officials and other community stakeholders is the basis of the Polk County 2020 Multi-Jurisdictional Local Mitigation Strategy (LMS).
A local mitigation plan is the written jurisdiction’s commitment to reduce risks from hazards. Local officials may refer to the plan in day-to-day activities and decisions regarding regulations, permitting, and funding capital improvements and other community initiatives. The local mitigation plan serves as the basis for the State to prioritize future grant funding as it becomes available.
Community stakeholders may utilize the LMS to increase public awareness about local hazards and risks while providing options and resources available to reduce those risks. Teaching the public about potential hazards will help each jurisdiction protect itself against the impacts of hazards and will enable informed decision making on where to live, purchase property or locate businesses.
Natural hazards such as hurricanes, floods and tornadoes are a part of the world around us. Their occurrences are natural and inevitable. The LMS considers hazards as significant threats to human life, safety and property.
Polk County, located in central Florida, is vulnerable to a wide range of natural hazards, including hurricanes, severe thunderstorms, flooding, tornadoes and wildfires. The county is also vulnerable to human-caused hazards including cyber-attacks, hazardous material spills and civil disturbances. These hazards threaten the life and safety of residents and have the potential to damage or destroy both public and private property, disrupt the local economy and affect the overall quality of life of individuals who live, work and visit in the community. While jurisdictions cannot eliminate natural hazards, they can take actions to lessen the potential impacts on the community.
Hazard mitigation techniques include structural measures, such as strengthening buildings and infrastructure from the destructive forces of potential hazards, and non-structural measures such as adoption of sound land use policies and the creation of public awareness programs. Local government level implementation of mitigation measures is effective because local government makes decisions on the regulation and control of development. A comprehensive mitigation approach addresses hazard vulnerabilities existing today and in the foreseeable future. The LMS is essential to evaluate projected patterns of future development and considers them in terms of how growth will increase or decrease a community’s overall hazard vulnerability.
Key components of the comprehensive approach to hazard mitigation are developing, adopting, and updating as needed, a local hazard mitigation plan. A local hazard mitigation plan establishes the broad community vision and guiding principles for reducing hazard risk, and proposes mitigation actions to eliminate or reduce identified vulnerabilities.
The Polk County 2020 Multi-Jurisdictional Strategy (LMS) forms the basis for incorporating hazard mitigation principles and practices into the routine government activities and functions of Polk County and the jurisdictions within the county. The LMS recommends actions to protect residents from losses to hazards that pose the greatest threats. The mitigation actions recommend structural solutions to reduce existing vulnerability, such as elevation, retrofitting and acquisition projects. Local policies governing community growth and development, incentives for natural resource protection, and public awareness and outreach activities are examples of additional actions to reduce Polk County’s future vulnerability to identified hazards. The LMS is a living document, with implementation and evaluation procedures established to help achieve meaningful objectives and successful outcomes over time.
This LMS relates to the following jurisdictions in Polk County:
Each municipality in the county and the Polk County Public Schools may adopt the LMS once FEMA and Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) have approved the LMS document.
| Hazard | Further Analysis Required (Included in LMS) | No Further Analysis Required (Omitted from LMS) |
|---|---|---|
| ATMOSPHERIC HAZARDS | ||
| Extreme Temperatures | X | |
| Fog | X | |
| Hurricanes /Tropical Storms | X | |
| Severe Storm and Tornado (Hail, Lightning and Thunderstorm) | X | |
| Winter Storm | X | |
| GEOLOGIC HAZARDS | ||
| Earthquake | X | |
| Landslide | X | |
| Subsidence and Sinkhole | X | |
| Tsunami | X | |
| HYDROLOGIC HAZARDS | ||
| Coastal and Riverine Erosion | X | |
| Drought | X | |
| Flood | X | |
| Storm Surge | X | |
| OTHER NATURAL HAZARDS | ||
| Climate Change | X | |
| Sea Level Rise | X | |
| Wildfire | X | |
| HUMAN-CAUSED HAZARDS | ||
| Civil Disturbance/Terrorism | X | |
| Cyber-Attacks | X | |
| Dam/Levee Failure | X | |
| Epidemics | X | |
| Hazardous Material Incidents | X | |
| Mass Immigration/Migration | X | |
| Nuclear/Radiological | X | |
| Transportation Incident | X | |