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What does FEMA recommend for agencies to do?
The
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommends
five ways agencies can mitigate losses from volcanic eruptions.
- Define
hazard zones to guide development through land-use planning.
The US Geological Society has such a map for the Island
of Hawaii - it needs to be updated, however.
- Establish
detection and monitoring systems to enhance forecasting
of impending eruptions and provide warning.
- Develop
disaster preparedness plans with hazard-zone maps showing
the relative severity, extent, and effect of specific
volcanic eruptions.
- Institute
emergency communication systems to warn and inform the
public of potentially hazardous events.
- Effective
and economically feasible diversion or control lava
flows, pyroclastic flows and debris flows generally
is NOT possible.
- Risk assessment,
especially coupled with land-use planning, provides
a strategy for reducing losses from volcanic hazards.
Source:
FEMA. Multi-Hazard: Identification and Risk Assessment;
A Cornerstone of the National Mitigation Strategy; 1997.
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