LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – In coordination with the cities of Clearlake and Lakeport, Lake County Office of Emergency Services, or OES, has begun the 2024-2025 Lake County Multijurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan project.

Lake County OES, the city of Lakeport, and the city of Clearlake have hired The Resiliency Initiative, or TRI, consulting firm to support the updating process.

Hazard mitigation plans provide community members and officials with information regarding the community’s hazards and outline the long-term strategy to reduce disaster-related losses.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency requires state, local, tribal, and territorial governments to have approved and adopted hazard mitigation plans to be eligible for certain types of non-emergency disaster assistance, including mitigation projects. FEMA must approve these plans every five years to maintain eligibility.

Previously, Lake County, the city of Lakeport and the city of Clearlake each had their own local hazard mitigation plan, or LHMP.

The LHMPs for the two cities were last updated in 2018 and currently require updating. Lake County updated its LHMP in 2023.

After thorough discussion, the leadership of these jurisdictions determined it would better serve the community needs to combine the plans into a multijurisdictional hazard mitigation plan, or MJHMP.

This MJHMP would encompass all three jurisdictions and satisfy the updating requirement for the cities.

Public input is vital to designing an MJHMP that accurately reflects the community's needs. To begin the update process, Lake County OES, the City of Lakeport, and the City of Clearlake plan to host three public information sessions. These sessions are co-sponsored by the Lake Area Planning Council, which is currently preparing a wildfire evacuation and preparedness plan.

The sessions will provide the public with information regarding both projects and solicit public input.

The dates, times, and locations are:

• Clearlake: 5:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23, Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.Virtual meeting info here.
• Lakeport: 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24, Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St. Virtual meeting info here.
• Unincorporated Lake County: noon to 1 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 30. Virtual meeting info here.

Resources for additional opportunities for information and feedback:
• Follow www.facebook.com/lakecountyOES, https://www.clearlake.ca.us/facebook and https://www.facebook.com/CityofLakeport/ for ongoing public information and
important updates regarding the project.
• Attend in-person meetings. These meetings will be announced on social media and posted to the website.
• Visit htttps://www.lakesheriff.com/about/oes/hmp to learn more about hazard mitigation, the planning process and progress, upcoming events and more.
• Visit any Lake County Library branch to review hard copies of all planning components during the planning process.

Questions about the plan or process can be emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..