Contact: Harriet Laird
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Mississippi State, local and state officials continue to seek community input for the land-grant institution's official designation as a Disaster-Resistant University.
A fourth and final public meeting is scheduled 4-7 p.m. Monday [May 10] in Bost Conference Center's North Auditorium. The completed draft of the hazard mitigation document will be available for viewing at the come-and-go event.
Jim Jones, DRU advisory committee co-chair, said public feedback is essential to formulating a comprehensive, workable hazard mitigation plan. At www.msstate.edu/web/dru/, community members may view and receive updated information about the plan, MSU's sustainability and campus planning director added.
"This is the final opportunity for community stakeholders to contribute their ideas to the formation of an all-inclusive, complete approach to disaster resistance," Jones said. "In the end, this is everybody's plan."
Representatives from the Oktibbeha County Emergency Management Agency, City of Starkville, county and city law enforcement departments, Oktibbeha County Regional Medical Center, and response agencies such as the Red Cross also served on the advisory committee.
MSU's effort is part of a larger endeavor directed by the Board of Trustees, State Institutions of Higher Learning, with the goal of every IHL school in Mississippi being designated as disaster resistant.
Kacey Strickland, campus director of regulatory compliance and safety, is the local committee co-chair. Using data collected from numerous sources and information provided by the advisory committee, the hazard mitigation plan was written by associate professor Mike Brown and professor Charlie Wax of the geosciences department.
Brown heads the broadcast meteorology program, while Wax is the state climatologist.
Funding for the program is provided through a grant to the IHL from the Mississippi Emergency Management and Federal Emergency Management agencies.
Upon positive review by MEMA and FEMA, Mississippi State will qualify for pre-disaster financial assistance to initiate mitigation actions described in the hazard mitigation plan. The plan includes:
--Identifying natural, man-made and technological hazards,
--Estimating potential losses that could be incurred due to these hazards, and
--Proposing mitigation actions that could begin the process of reducing institutional vulnerability.
"The goal is a safer university at which any interruption to its mission of teaching, research and service during a disaster and subsequent recovery is minimized," Jones said.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For additional information, contact Mr. Jones at 662-325-5557.