At the meeting of the Carroll County Board of Supervisors held on April 29 in Vaiden, approval was granted to participate in the 2025/2026 District 3 Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan. This starts the process for updating the mitigation plan.
Every five years the MEMA District 3 Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan, which includes Carroll County, must be adopted. Hazard mitigation planning reduces the risk to people and property and reduces the cost of recovering from a disaster. A hazard mitigation plan can help communities become more sustainable and disaster-resistant by focusing efforts on the hazards, disaster-prone areas, and identifying appropriate mitigation actions. The Mitigation Planning Program is updating the state and local mitigation planning policies, also known as the Plan Review Guides, and reflects recent legislative changes and policy. While the plan also incorporates the three municipalities of Carrollton, North Carrollton, and Vaiden it contains a host of statistics for the entire county. This includes demographics, history of lightening events, hail events, severe wind events, forest land statistics, wildfire data, along with a host of other data that spans over 100 pages. When the document is complete there will be a public hearing scheduled before a vote is taken.
After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, Gov. Haley Barbour received national recognition from the bipartisan American Legislative Exchange Council for his swift response to the worst natural disaster in American history. In 2015, he published America’s Great Storm: Leading through Hurricane Katrina, a memoir of the year after the storm from the Governor’s perspective and lessons in leadership from the mega-disaster.
"You prepare. You plan. You practice. You work together," Gov. Barbour said about the planning leading up to Hurricane Katrina's landfall and the recovery effort in the weeks following.
The fruits of this labor will be more evident in the years to come. Responding and mitigating disasters is important, and it can be a game changer. I often mention that a role model for me has been Governor Haley Barbour’s response to Hurricane Katrina. Here in rural counties, it means a lot to recover funding to municipal and county budgets.
In the coming months, as this updated plan is put together, it will continue serving with additional information. It will serve as a blueprint for our efforts in the next five years. Former Gov. Barbour’s words and example are a blueprint for recovery efforts. Really, it’s what Carroll County has been doing all along, continuing that great spirit into the future. It was on display last week at the Vaiden Courthouse.
Ken Strachan serves as the mayor of North Carrollton and is a member of the Mississippi Municipal League board of directors.
