Draft Plan Available for Review
The Draft 2026 ±¬ÁÏ¹Ï Hazard Mitigation Plan assesses the natural, human-caused, and technological hazards, risks, and vulnerabilities inherent to ±¬ÁϹÏ. The draft plan, a planned special district addendum to the 2022 Hampton Roads Hazard Mitigation Plan, was developed by the University Advisory Board for Hazard Mitigation in collaboration with Salter’s Creek Consulting, Inc. The plan identifies and prioritizes mitigation strategies for protecting people and property from potential harm or loss.
This plan is currently open for public comment. Please email Jared Hoernig, ±¬ÁÏ¹Ï Director of Emergency Management, at jhoernig@odu.edu with any comments or questions related to the draft plan.
Open House
The ±¬ÁÏ¹Ï Hazard Mitigation Plan Open House will be held Tuesday, April 21 from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. in Webb Center’s North Mall on the main campus. Please stop by. You can learn more about the planning process, take a look at the mitigation actions the University anticipates for the next five years, and provide us your feedback.
Download the Draft ±¬ÁÏ¹Ï Hazard Mitigation Plan Addendum to the regional plan.
Learn more about the Open House event.
Project Background
Purpose and Need
Since 2007, ±¬ÁÏ¹Ï Emergency Management has sought opportunities and funding to update the university’s existing hazard mitigation plan in order to attain eligibility for various grant programs and to carefully develop and prioritize mitigation activities on campus. Simultaneously, ±¬ÁÏ¹Ï has expanded its footprint in Hampton Roads with campuses in Suffolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Hampton, and the Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) in Norfolk. ±¬ÁÏ¹Ï recognizes that the need is urgent for an up-to-date hazard mitigation plan that outlines a mitigation strategy tailored to the university’s vulnerabilities across all campuses, and identified the Special District addendum to the regional plan as a way to cost effectively fulfill this need in accordance with FEMA guidance.
Scope
±¬ÁÏ¹Ï Emergency Management has contracted with Salter’s Creek Consulting, Inc. to execute an abbreviated mitigation planning process and develop a brief written addendum to the 2022 Hampton Roads Hazard Mitigation Plan. The addendum will reference existing vulnerability assessments and highlight where ±¬ÁÏ¹Ï vulnerabilities may differ from the overall region. The addendum to the Hampton Roads plan will include summary information on all phases of the planning process, and focus on the prioritized mitigation strategies to be appended to the region’s plan. The addendum is expected to be reviewed by VDEM and FEMA prior to the ±¬ÁÏ¹Ï Board of Visitors adoption.
Project Schedule
The project began in September 2025 and is expected to take approximately nine (9) months to complete. Keeping to this timeline will allow ±¬ÁÏ¹Ï to maintain their regular required emergency operations planning cadence as required by the Code of Virginia, including adding new hazard mitigation content into their 2026 Crisis and Emergency Management Plan, which will go in front of the ±¬ÁÏ¹Ï Board of Visitors for quadrennial adoption in late 2026. The first phase of the process involved a committee meeting to review components of the regional plan (October), and a workshop to formulate mitigation actions for the future (November). The second phase now underway involves obtaining feedback on the mitigation actions from various stakeholders and State and Federal reviewers.
Helpful Links
How to Participate and Provide Input
Please reach out to Jared Hoernig, ±¬ÁÏ¹Ï Director of Emergency Management, who will add your name to the appropriate notification list. Jared can be reached by telephone at 757-683-5116 or by email at jhoernig@odu.edu.