Revised Flood Insurance Rate Maps Available for Public Review

Clark County Public Works issued the following press release on the Clark County website yesterday.

Clark County residents are encouraged to see how revised Flood Insurance Rate Maps could affect their properties. The proposed maps, prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), identify flood hazard zones within the county and reflect revisions to existing flood zones.

Property owners can use the proposed maps to gauge whether their property is inside a flood hazard zone, which includes the area that has a 1 percent chance of flooding in any year. Property owners affected by flood zone revisions likely will be required to purchase flood insurance as a mortgage condition and also could be subject to additional building restrictions and prohibitions.

To see if your property is affected by the revised maps, go to Clark County Public Works’ home page, www.clark.wa.gov/public-works, and click on the link at the top of the page. You will be directed to a list of more than 100 maps of various parts of Clark County, along with instructions for locating your property.

Paper maps are available at the Vancouver Community Library, 1007 E. Mill Plain Blvd.

FEMA is accepting comments on the revised maps regarding non-technical items, such as corrections to street, bridge or stream names. Later this year, a 90-day statutory appeals period is expected to begin; the date has not been set. Appellants will be required to present scientific or technical information that refutes the proposed base flood elevation, indicating areas that have a 1 percent chance of flooding annually.

The Board of County Commissioners has not adopted the proposed flood maps or incorporated them in the county’s Unified Development Code. Commissioners will not consider that action until the appeals period ends and FEMA issues a final decision.

Flooding is the nation’s most common and costliest disaster.  90 percent of all disasters involve flooding. Clark County’s last significant flood, in February 1996, damaged or destroyed nearly 300 homes and caused $25 million in property losses.

For additional information on Flood Insurance Rate Maps, including a tutorial on how to read the maps, go to: www.fema.gov/hazard/map/firm.shtm.