Do You Live in a Floodplain? Identifying where risks are to you
Houston, TX (PRWEB) July 30, 2015 -- By: Greg Frank, P.E., CFM
Many Houstonians may have thought they were not in a floodplain, and yet found their homes underwater. I attend several flood plain related conferences each year and this question is asked by any number of speakers. Each time, only a few of us raise our hands. But the brutal truth is that we are ALL living in a flood plain of some sort.
We can’t afford to build drainage and flood control systems that protect us from such biblical floods. We, through the various governing entities, have to choose what level of protection we can afford, then try to protect ourselves from the residual risks above that level of protection. But, building such systems over the vast areas in which we live takes time and huge sums of money. In the meantime, we need to identify where the highest risks are and somehow limit our exposure to them, both financially and physically. That is where the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) comes into play.
Flood risk identification, through mapping of the flood risks of each community and publishing the Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs); Flood plain management, by promulgating minimum building and flood plain management standards and encouraging communities to exceed these minimum standards; and Flood insurance, thus providing a mechanism for individuals to reduce their financial risk of flood losses. These programs are administered through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), of which we have all heard.
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Scott Steiner, On Target Agency, +1 (281) 444-4777, [email protected]
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