JEFFERSON COUNTY OFFICE OF

HOMELAND SECURITY/CITIZEN CORPS/CERT

Building Community Partnerships, Assessing Risks & Vulnerabilities, All Hazards Mitigation Planning, Preparedness, Education, and Training to make Jefferson County and the Region resistant to future disasters and emergencies.

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Our Mission:

The Mission of the Jefferson County Office of Homeland Security/Citizen Corps/CERT is to reduce the human and economic costs of both natural and human-caused disasters to the communities in Jefferson County, West Virginia. The infrastructure, businesses and neighborhoods of this county, have the potential threat of fires, floods, high winds, winter storms, tornados, hazardous materials spills and/or terrorism.

To respond to these threats, the leaders in local government and the private sector have established a voluntary public-private partnership to work to reduce the vulnerability of the entire community to the risks of natural and human-caused hazards. Jefferson County is committed to implement locally planned and coordinated programs and projects.

The potential for future hazardous events in the County has been clearly demonstrated by past disasters in the county, the events of domestic and international terrorism within the United States and the current War on Terror. While Jefferson County has already made significant progress in reducing many of the risks, we continue to expand our efforts and continue to provide extensive training and public awareness programs needed to make the County resistant to future hazard events. Jefferson County intends to reduce the health, safety, economic, and environmental costs of natural and technological disasters through a comprehensive, coordinated mitigation program that will address the needs of both the public and private sector.

Our Goals:

The long-term goal of the Jefferson County Office of Homeland Security/Citizen Corps/CERT is to achieve a fully disaster-resistant community in which:

ü The human and economic costs of disasters are minimized

ü There is limited interruption of public services

ü The economic vitality of the community is not threatened by disasters

ü The Community can return to pre-disaster conditions (or better) in a timely, orderly manner

ü The existing environmental and historic resources enjoyed by the citizens and visitors of Jefferson County will not be degraded by disaster’s impacts.

To achieve these objectives, Jefferson County Office of Homeland Security formulated a detailed risk assessment and mitigation strategy that identifies initiatives, planned priorities and developed a schedule for implementation. This will reduce vulnerability of the community in the pre-disaster time frame, and promote more disaster-resistant reconstruction in impacted areas following a disaster.