Mitigation, Benefits and Costs of

According to Relief Web, disasters worldwide from 2000 to 2007 averaged $82 billion in damages, while in 2008 the total was over $190 billion, with hundreds of millions of people impacted worldwide. With expenses and impacts this great, the benefits of mitigation are evident. Mitigation is any action that prevents long-term impact and loss of people and property as a result of a disaster. If implemented, mitigation measures can greatly reduce the cost of recovery from a disaster. This was demonstrated by the findings of the Multihazard Mitigation Council (MMC) that for every dollar spent now, mitigation saves $4 later. However, the benefits of a specific mitigation project must be weighed against the cost of the mitigation action to determine if it is worthwhile and ...