Hazard Mitigation Plan

The City of Bellevue started work in summer 2024 on our first ever comprehensive Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP). This plan will help us identify areas in Bellevue that are vulnerable to natural hazards, assess risks and formulate actions to reduce or eliminate the impacts of these hazards. Natural hazards include droughts, earthquakes, severe weather and floods. Having a completed HMP helps the city to be more prepared for disaster response and recovery, allows the city to apply for federal and state grants which can help fund mitigation measures, and keeps people who live, work, play and study in Bellevue safe.

The draft of the plan is complete, and we want to know what you think! The information you share will help us fine-tune the plan and is essential to ensure the plan reflects the needs of our entire community.

As you review the draft Hazard Mitigation Plan, consider the following questions and then share your answers via the survey below to let us know your questions and comments. You can also email your comments to oem@bellevuewa.gov.

• Do you think the plan accurately describes the hazards that affect your neighborhood or the city as a whole? If not, which hazards do you think still need to be addressed?
• Do you think the mitigation actions proposed in the current plan are effective for reducing risk within the city? What actions do you think should be prioritized?
• Is there any part of the plan that was unclear or too technical? How can it be improved to make it easier to understand?
• What role do you think community members like you can play in hazard mitigation?

This online open house will be available until May 1, 2025.

What is hazard mitigation?

Hazard mitigation is a crucial part of emergency management. Mitigation is the act of reducing or avoiding the impacts of disasters, including risk to life and property. Mitigation can keep natural hazards from having catastrophic impacts, which helps communities recover more quickly after a disaster occurs. Some examples of mitigation strategies include seismic retrofit of buildings and bridges, redundancy of water systems and fuel systems, and tree planting to reduce heat in urban areas.

A hazard mitigation plan forms the foundation of a community’s long-term strategy to reduce losses caused by disasters and break the cycle of damage and reconstruction. Through the process of creating this plan, the city will identify hazards, assess risks and develop mitigation strategies.