The Polis Center’s expertise in neighborhood level community information differentiates it, bringing a holistic perspective to best identify improvements. It looks beyond the physical infrastructure elements of mitigation by bearing in mind a region’s vulnerable populations, social weaknesses and services, social determinants of health, and more when preparing a community’s MultiHazard Mitigation Plan (MHMP).

A recent example of the importance of this work is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approval of the Orange County Multihazard Mitigation Plan (MHMP) addendum for the Springs Valley School Corporation in time for the school to request a grant for the construction of a safe room in its high school.

According to FEMA, “A safe room is a room or structure specifically designed and constructed to resist wind pressures and wind-borne debris impacts during an extreme-wind event, like tornadoes and hurricanes, for the purpose of providing life-safety protection. A tornado or hurricane can cause much greater wind and wind-borne debris loads on your house than those on which building code requirements are based. Only specially designed and constructed safe rooms, which are voluntarily built above the minimum code requirements, can protect you from these risks.”

Learn more about our work in this field here.