BEDFORD — The Bedford County Planning Commission and the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission expect to release disaster mitigation actions for vulnerable historic properties by the end of June.

The release will include action steps that historic building owners can take to protect against flooding, such as planting native vegetation along sides of the building and installing storm gutters, as the second part of a disaster planning initiative.

Bedford County will be among the first counties in the United States to have integrated historic property information into its Federal Emergency Management Agency-approved hazard mitigation plan, according to a Bedford County Planning Commission press statement.

John Gardosik of PHMC said, “There had been a lack of focus on disaster planning and how it actually affects historic buildings or properties or historic resources in general.”

“Especially here in Pennsylvania where most of our towns are built along rivers, the dangers of flooding is something that really needs to be thought about when thinking about historic preservation,” Gardosik said.

The first part of the initiative included 113 historic surveys within Bedford County that began last year in the 100-year flood plain in all 38 municipalities.

Of the 113 surveys, a representative sample of 30 properties was selected for the architectural analysis and mitigation action steps, listing five to 10 actions for each property type.

Property types included industrial, agriculture, residential, religious and commercial among others. Architectural designs taken into account included Queen Anne, Second Empire, Federal, Gothic and Victorian style buildings.

Dependent on architectural style and function, Vision Planning and Consulting LLC, which took part in the initiative, recommends various preservation disaster planning methods to protect against flooding.

“These are solutions not only to protect specific properties and mitigate specific impacts from flooding hazards, but they are also actions to not jeopardize any historic integrity, historic significance,” said Andrew Estrain, analyst at Vision Planning and Consulting.

PHMC anticipates sample action sheets outlining mitigation steps to be made public online within the next month or two.

Data on precise locations of historic structures and the vertical elevations of the buildings’ first floors where water may enter during a flood were collected prior to determining mitigation actions.

It has been more than 30 years since the last countywide survey of historic properties.