 | Welcome to the Flood Zone is a nationally distributed resource for those interested in flood zone issues, land surveying, real estate, history, and educational opportunities. This newsletter has been proudly featured by the Association of State Floodplain Managers, the National Society of Professional Surveyors, and the Maine and New Hampshire Floodplain Management Programs. Please feel free to share with your friends and colleagues! If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, simply click the unsubscribe link in the footer of this message. | In this Issue of Welcome to the Flood Zone: Maine NFIP Corner: "Flood Safety Awareness Week: March 13 – 17, 2023" and "Talk – USGS Water Science Centers: Serving our Communities with Science"
Real Estate Corner: "How Indiana’s Flood Map Went from Acclaimed to Attacked"
In the News: "January storms leave L.A. County Flood-Control Dams at Risk of Overflowing" and "Rising Groundwater Threatens New York City — Researchers to Study How Much"
Resources: "Coastal Flood Exposure Mapper", "FEMA Guide to Expanding Mitigation: Making the Connection to Codes and Standards" and "Understanding Flood Loss Avoidance"
Climate Corner: "Every Coastal Home Is Now a Stick of Dynamite" Banner Image: The St. Patrick's Day Flood in Pittsburgh, PA, 1936. Nearly 2 inches of rain fell in Pittsburgh on March 16, 1936. Combined with melting snow, the rain caused massive flooding; a day later, the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers rose to a peak of 46 feet at the Point, more than 20 feet over flood stage. More than half of the businesses Downtown ended up underwater. Image from Pittsburgh Magazine, March 14, 2022. | Talk – USGS Water Science Centers: Serving our Communities with Science Monday, March 6 from 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Speaker: John Bumgarner, Director, New England Water Science Center, US Geological Survey All Mitchell Center talks are free and open to the public.
Talks are held virtually via Zoom and in-person at 107 Norman Smith Hall, UMaine, Orono. Click here to learn more and register for the event. Virtual attendance: Complete the registration form to receive Zoom connection information.
In-person attendance: Masks are required for all Mitchell Center talks. | Real Estate Corner How Indiana’s Flood Map Went from Acclaimed to Attacked By: Thomas Frank, E&E News, February 16, 2023 Indiana once won national acclaim for its interactive website that displays the flood risk of almost every location across the state. But the tool is now under attack from the Indiana Legislature, developers and some property owners who say the new detail about flood risk is driving down real estate values, blocking people from building on their own land and infringing on property rights. The dispute reflects a broader national debate about government, climate change and development. Agencies nationwide are facing resistance as they restrict growth in areas exposed to climate impacts and make homeowners pay for the risk of living in flood zones. Click here to read the full article. |  Well over half a million cubic yards of muck have collected in the reservoir behind the 96-year-old Santa Anita Dam, officials say. The debris is at least 80 feet deep and now poses a flooding risk during severe storms. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) | January storms leave L.A. County Flood-Control Dams at Risk of Overflowing By: Louis Sahagún, Los Angeles Times, January 24, 2023 Now that the shock of a series of January storms has worn off, Los Angeles County officials face a herculean chore: Five reservoirs along south-facing San Gabriel Mountain slopes are filled with so much debris and soupy mud that they pose a flood risk to the communities below. Click here to read the full article. |  The Hole, a low-lying neighborhood on the Brooklyn-Queens border, already has longstanding flooding and sewage problems, March 27, 2022. Samantha Maldonado/THE CITY | Rising Groundwater Threatens New York City — Researchers to Study How Much By: Samantha Maldonado, The City, January 18, 2023 Water tables that rise with sea levels can inundate basements, ruin underground infrastructure and render anti-flooding strategies ineffective. After a nearly decade-long hiatus, the feds are starting up monitoring again. Click here to read the full article. |  The current geography includes the East Coast, West Coast, Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, and islands in the Pacific and Caribbean. | Coastal Flood Exposure Mapper This online visualization tool from the NOAA Office for Coastal Management supports communities that are assessing their coastal hazard risks and vulnerabilities. The tool creates a collection of user-defined maps that show the people, places, and natural resources exposed to coastal flooding. The maps can be saved, downloaded, or shared to communicate flood exposure and potential impacts. In addition, the tool provides guidance for using these maps to engage community members and stakeholders. Click here to learn more and access the mapping tool. | FEMA Guide to Expanding Mitigation: Making the Connection to Codes and Standards This "Guide to Expanding Mitigation" explains how to benefit from diverse codes and standards, communicate the hidden costs of failing to act, and work with departments to adopt and enforce codes that increase community resilience. It also includes case studies where higher standards save money. This guide will help officials, especially those in emergency management, start conversations about codes to make communities more resilient. Click here to download a PDF of the 9-page guide. | Understanding Flood Loss Avoidance FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) offers policyholders who purchase a Standard Flood Insurance Policy (SFIP) coverage to protect themselves against flood loss. Flood loss avoidance is a term used to describe the preventative actions you can take to minimize or prevent flood damage to covered property. The SFIP covers up to $1,000 toward the purchase of supplies and labor to protect your insured property from the imminent threat of flood, and $1,000 to relocate insured property away from the described location to protect it from flood waters. Click here to download a PDF of the October 2021 FEMA Fact Sheet. | Climate Corner Every Coastal Home Is Now a Stick of Dynamite By: Jake Bittle, The Atlantic, February 20, 2023 You can imagine each of the homes in Larchmont—and elsewhere along the coast—as a stick of dynamite with a very long fuse. When humans began to warm the Earth, we lit the fuse. Ever since then, a series of people have tossed the dynamite among them, each owner holding the stick for a while before passing the risk on to the next. Each of these owners knows that at some point, the dynamite is going to explode, but they can also see that there’s a lot of fuse left. As the fuse keeps burning, each new owner has a harder time finding someone to take the stick off their hands. Click here to view the full article. |  Image by Rodrigo @ ToonsUp.com | | | |
