Flood Hazard Mitigation: Investing In Safer Communities
Release Date: July 14, 2008
Release Number: FNF-08-062
Return on Investment
Cleaning up after a devastating flood is arduous and heart-breaking work. Just ask the victims of the recent floods in the Midwest. But 15 years ago - after being hit by comparable floods - some Midwestern communities swore 'never again,' and adopted mitigation programs to help reduce their future flood losses.
Some communities urged residents to protect themselves financially with flood insurance. Others required families living in flood-prone areas to elevate their homes above the Base Flood Elevation, the level water is anticipated to rise in a storm that has a one percent chance of happening in any given year. A few towns just packed-up and moved to higher ground. But in each case, an active mitigation program staved off the full force of the flood waters of 2008.
Grafton and Valmeyer, towns situated on the Illinois side of the Mississippi river, rebuilt their communities on higher ground after the 1993 floods. Watch videos shot during the spring and summer floods of 2008 that show how their efforts paid off. (
Illinois Mitigation multimedia page
)
Getting Started: Information
Getting ahead of the impacts of any potential disaster is critical to mitigation planning. Due to latest technology, changes in population and threats to communities, tools such as digital flood maps and hazard-reduction models and software are providing realistic pre-disaster planning information to help communities make educated decisions to protect themselves and the families they represent well into the future.
Pre-disaster planning and mitigation efforts are underpinned by data - a realistic assessment of the hazards you face. FEMA's flood maps have long been used to set premiums for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), a government-backed initiative to make the protections of flood insurance available to businesses, homeowners and renters. (Flooding is explicitly excluded from homeowners' insurance.)
But advances in GPS technology - and a commitment to all-hazards mitigation - prompted Congress in 2003 to pass legislation authorizing the Next Generation of FEMA flood maps.
Called "Map Modernization," the new maps have a digital format that allows additional layers of data to be added - such as utility lines, hazardous waste sites, etc. - making them vital community tools not only for flood mitigation efforts, but also future zoning and development decisions, as well as emergency planning and response. With the new maps, sites for safe (and dry) evacuation routes and emergency shelters can be identified.
This sophisticated technology is particularly welcome on Long Island in New York State. Its old flood maps are based on data 20 to 30 years old, and the island, which is the largest in the continental United States and has a population of over 7.5 million, has seen dynamic population growth and development since then.
Click here to see how Long Island residents are coping with their new flood maps.(
Mitigation - Long Island/Nassau County flood maps multimedia Page
)
Last Modified: Monday, 14-Jul-2008 17:01:33
