Each county is faced with the difficult task of ensuring that its residents
are adequately prepared and protected in the event of an extreme coastal
event such as a direct hurricane land fall. To do this county officials meet and
prepare documents and procedures outlining methods of reducing the human
impacts and guidelines for direct response from various forms of local
response. These documents are referred to as Hazard Mitigation Plans(HMP) and
Emergency Operation Plans(EOP).

According to FEMA, a Hazards Mitigation Plan is a process for States
and communities to identify policies, activities and tools to implement
mitigation actions. Mitigation is any sustained action taken to reduce or
eliminate long-term risk to life and property from a hazard event. This
process has four steps:
          -organizing resources;
          -assessing risks;
          -developing a mitigation plan; and
          -implementing the plan and monitoring progress.

An Emergency Operations Plan is an overview of the jurisdiction's emergency
response organization and policies. It cites the legal authority for
emergency operations, summarizes the situations addressed by the EOP,
explains the general concept of operations, and assisgns responsibilities for
emergency planning an operations.