By Cindi Andrews
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Hamilton County turns out to be a pretty disastrous place to live: We have tornados, thunderstorms, landslides, droughts and even an earthquake fault.

But flooding emerged as the top threat in a new report developed by the county's Emergency Management Agency.

The aim of the report is to pinpoint not only the problems but also possible solutions. The study is required to get money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for preventive measures.

Between 1993 and 2002, the report found, 60 floods in Hamilton County caused three deaths and $36 million in damage, and 90 homes and businesses had severe flood damage at least twice.

More than 5,465 buildings sit in floodplains - areas that have a 1 percent chance of flooding at any given time.

The plan suggests these strategies to curb risks from flooding:

• Educate residents about their responsibility for maintaining streams on their property.

• Look into countywide regulations for building in floodplains.

"It really doesn't make sense for adjoining communities to have different regulations ... when they're in the same watershed," said Jim Rozelle of Fuller, Mossbarger, Scott and May Inc., the consultant that wrote the report.

• Buy emergency weather radios for key facilities such as nursing homes and, perhaps, mobile home parks.

• Develop a program for buying homes and businesses that frequently flood.

Colerain Township officials already know the drill for putting together a plan to mitigate hazards. Trustee Keith Corman said it was the first community in Ohio to do so. The township has been able to parlay its plan into more than $2 million in grants for projects such as buying flood-prone homes along the west fork of Mill Creek.

"The idea behind hazard mitigation is to establish a program that heads off (natural disasters)," Corman said. "It's quite important."

The county's hazard-mitigation plan identified thunderstorms and severe winter weather as the second-biggest risk to people and property.

The top recommendation there was to upgrade and expand warning sirens countywide. That's a $5.5 million undertaking that Commissioner Todd Portune has pushed for more than a year.

Rounding out the top six hazards: tornados, landslides, earthquakes and drought. Southwest Ohio is in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, the report said, and while the risk of an earthquake is low, damage could be extensive if one occurred.

The hazard mitigation report is expected to be approved by county commissioners today.

E-mail candrews@enquirer.com