Carbon County's municipalities are working to update the countywide hazard mitigation plan.

On Wednesday, representatives from several municipalities as well as county and state officials gathered at the Emergency Management Agency to work on finalizing the updated plan.The state requires counties to update their plans every five years.Taryn Murray, mitigation planner for Michael Baker International in Philadelphia, said that the plan is important because it "identifies hazards and risks in the county and then comes up with strategies to reduce the vulnerability to human life and property."She said 17 hazards have been identified in Carbon County.Of those, three are high-risk hazards that can happen anywhere in the county because of the topography, waterways and forestry composition of the area. These hazards include flooding, winter storms and wildfires two of which occurred recently in various communities in the county.Other hazards include utility interruptions, dam failures, nuclear incidents, transportation accidents, drought, hurricane/tropical storms/nor'easters, levee failures, disorientation, landslides, hailstorms, radon exposure, environmental hazards, drowning and building or structure collapses.Not all of these hazards are countywide, Murray said, noting that some of these items, like dam failures, will be localized to specific municipalities that could be affected.For example, local dams can be found at Mauch Chunk Lake in Jim Thorpe, Beltzville State Park in Lehighton, Lake Hauto in Nesquehoning and the Francis E. Walter Dam in White Haven.Officials also wanted to add mine fires into the types of hazards because of the history of coal mining in the area that could result in mine fires.Most recently, crews were battling a mine fire in Jeansville, Banks Township.Murray said this plan, which then goes to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency for final approval, will help the municipalities access hazard mitigation grant funding that is tied to disaster relief in the event of one of these hazards causing large-scale damage. She urged any municipalities that have not yet submitted information regarding possible hazards to do so as soon as possible.Following Murray's presentation, the group then completed an exercise to identify additional areas of vulnerabilities in the areas of drowning, landslides, crude oil transportation locations, natural gas pipelines and search and rescues. This additional information will be used for updating the plan.Murray said that the 250-page document will become available for the public's review online on July 8 and can be commented on until Aug. 6.It will also be sent to PEMA and FEMA for review during this time period.To view the document once it becomes available, visit

http://www.pennsylvaniahmp.com/carbon-hmp.The goal will then be to have everything completed and submitted to each municipality for adoption in September.Municipalities that were not present at the meeting, can also go to the aforementioned web address to find additional information, as well as worksheets and surveys that are used in the planning phase.