Local Officials – Post-Flood Responsibilities

 

Local Officials – Post-Flood Responsibilities

Keep up to date on Flood information resources

 

Typical Floodplain Coordinators Job

  • Make floodplain determinations
  • Notify applicants of required permits
    • Assist applicant with state floodplain application
  • Once federal and state permits have been obtained, review local floodplain permit application
    • A local permit should be Issued or denied based on the local application & the community’s ordinance
    • Inspect development (during and post construction)
    • Ensure compliance/issue stop work orders
    • Conduct additional inspections as needed
    • Compile documentation for community records
      • Plans, permits, maps, certificates

 

Presentations by Division of Water at 2022 KAMM Conference 

Follow the links

 

Presentations by KDOW and FEMA at 2022 KAMM Conference

Substantial Damage Administrative Procedures -Getting your Ducks in a Row Before a Disaster Happens – Smithline and VanPelt, FEMA RIV and DOW  

Substantial Damage The How-To’s for Local Administrators – Patricia Smithline and Alex VanPelt, FEMA RIV and DOW

 

Before A Flood

  • Monitor and share flooding impacts to social media (Facebook, Twitter) using the hashtag #kywx
  • Use local social and news media to communicate risk & safety procedures to the public
  • Make a list of areas where transportation, water or wastewater infrastructure may be flooded
  • Add safety signage to routes or flood prone areas, when possible
  • Build relationships with your community, state, regional, and federal agencies
  • Coordinate emergency management activities to ensure resource knowledge and availability (Fire, Police, EMS, Hospitals, etc.)
  • Understand your communities’ flood damage prevention ordinance so you can work with property owners to rebuild safely and promote mitigation
  • Understand Substantial Damage and Increased Costs of Compliance

 

During A Flood

  • Monitor and share flooding impacts to social media (Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #kywx)
  • Document all action measures taken, personnel time, and in-kind service
  • Ensure flooded roads are blocked
  • Drive the floodplain, begin documenting damaged areas

 

After A Flood

  • Conduct windshield surveys in the damaged areas, especially floodplains.
  • The local floodplain coordinator is part of the recovery and will conduct Substantial Damage assessments on the affected structures.  Perform and document damage assessments
  • Work with federal and state officials to document High Water Marks and create impact maps
  • KYEM verifies all data before submitted to FEMA for a Joint Preliminary Damage Assessment
  • Encourage state and federal partners to assist in collecting event-related data and information
  • FEMA Public Assistance (PA) Section 406 Mitigation allows for cost effective mitigation activities to public facilities and infrastructure
  • Use KYEM damage assessment digital tool or Public Assistance Form 501
  • Photograph damage BEFORE repairs begin
  • Maintain detailed records such as volunteer efforts, injuries and deaths, sheltering/feeding activities, and transportation detours (length, duration, # of impacted citizens)
  • Examine every damaged facility site for mitigation opportunities
  • Document outreach, mitigation, and safety successes to use in the future
  • Declare an emergency.  To better understand the declaration process and the county components and data needed link to http://kyem.ky.gov/recovery/Pages/New-Declaration-Process-.aspx

 

NFIP requirements include

  • Elevation of new and substantially improved residential structures above the base flood level.
  • Elevation or dry floodproofing (made watertight) of new or substantially improved non-residential structures.
  • Prohibition of development in floodways, the central portion of a riverine floodplain needed to carry deeper and faster moving water.

These requirements are the most cost-effective way to reduce the flood risk to new buildings and infrastructure.  Structures built to NFIP standards experience 80 percent less damage than structures not built to these standards and have resulted in $1.2 billion per year in reduced flood losses.

In addition to protecting new buildings, the NFIP substantial improvement and substantial damage requirement ensures that flood protection measures are integrated in structures built before FIRMs were developed.  A building is considered substantially improved or substantially damaged when the cost of improving or repairing the building equals or exceeds 50 percent of the market value of the building.  When this occurs, the community, which makes the determination, must ensure that the NFIP requirements are applied to these building so that they are protected from future flood damages.

 

Disposing of Storm and Flood Debris

The Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection (DEP) has specific guidelines for proper disposal of debris left in the aftermath of severe weather.  DEP wants storm-affected Kentuckians to be aware of health, safety, and compliance hazards associated with debris handling and disposal.  These hazards include, but are not limited to, burning of debris, asbestos removal, and mold growth.

Link to more information:

 

Link to Environmental and Historic Preservation (EHP) Fact Sheet: Debris Removal Activities

 

CRS and the Post-Disaster Setting … Major Flooding Brings Change to CRS Communities 

October 2017

Any community CRS Coordinator that has experienced a major flood knows first-hand about the all-consuming reorientation of community priorities as the community responds to the immediate needs of its residents, helps in recovery, and undertakes mitigation opportunities.  The CRS program recognizes the demands upon the CRS Coordinator during these times, and has prepared this fact sheet to highlight common CRS themes that arise during the recovery after a major flood.

To help local CRS Coordinators better grapple with the post-disaster environment in which they and their communities find themselves, the CRS produced a Fact Sheet, Considerations for CRS Coordinators after a Major Flood.  The three-page summary reminds CRS Coordinators that community priorities typically shift after a major flood or other disaster—sometimes only for the short term but often for longer periods.  Some communities implement their strict building standards with more vigor in the wake of a flood; others decide that different issues must take priority.  And, personnel and other resources necessarily must be re-allocated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mitigation Matters!  

Have questions, contact us at help@kymitigation.org.

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