Mitigation Best Practices

CAÑON CITY, CO – Cañon City officials completed an acquisition project after being motivated by a home that was subject to frequent flooding. The 2011 acquisition was funded by FEMA’s repetitive flood claims program.

Property acquisition can be a cost-effective and long-term solution for community floodplain managers and owners of flood-prone properties. The house that previously stood on the now empty lot was subjected to flooding not long after it was built. For decades, flooding of the Cañon City home continued after almost every rain storm.

SANTA BARBARA, CA - On the morning of January 10, 1995, the staff of the United Way arrived at their facility in downtown Santa Barbara to find 3 feet of water in their offices. Flooding destroyed computers, carpet, furniture, workstation partitions, electrical wiring, and irreplaceable documents. Elevators, the alarm system, cabinets and interior walls were also damaged.

DAUPHIN ISLAND, AL - Only a year after they were built, the homes at 1301 and 1303 Chaumont experienced their first flood damage from Hurricane Camille in August 1969. After years of repetitive losses, however, Hurricane Ivan (2004) did no further damage to either home. The homeowners and the Town of Dauphin Island had taken action to permanently eliminate or reduce the flood risk to these structures.

ABERDEEN, OH - Ohio River flooding is nothing new to the Village of Aberdeen and its population of 545. Before March 1997, the historic riverfront community about 50 miles east of Cincinnati had lived through five major 20th century flood events (1913, '36, '37, '59 and '96).

TANGIER ISLAND, VA - As a third generation Tangier Island resident, Sarah Crockett is no stranger to storm tides and the damages they create. “With [Hurricane] Floyd [1999] the water got into my house, ruined the carpets and floor and stuff. Tide came in once before, too, but that was long ago.” After floodwaters broke into her home, she decided it was time to put a stop to it.

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY, WV - In 1993 the Unger family had purchased a former vacation cabin to use as a permanent residence to escape renting. They had, at the time, two infants and were glad to get affordable housing. The salesperson assured them that the structure was out of the floodplain. But after the birth of their third child, they were forced from their home by the January 1996 flood event on the North River.

WASHINGTON COUNTY, OR - On May 12, 2000, the Unified Sewerage Agency of Washington County, Oregon (USA), signed a Partnership Agreement with FEMA under the Cooperating Technical Communities (CTC) initiative (now the Cooperating Technical Partners [CTP] initiative). Under that Agreement, USA and FEMA agreed to work together to ensure flood-hazard information for the incorporated and unincorporated areas of Washington County served by USA is kept up to date and accurate.

DUPAGE COUNTY, IL - As a large county in Illinois with an active water resources management program, DuPage County has developed its own, highly advanced methodology for modeling the flood hazard. Its principal goal in the Cooperative Technical Partner (CTP) program is to integrate their water resources management efforts with the NFIP program so the FEMA FIRMs will reflect the most up-to-date flood hazard information available for the county.

VALMEYER, IL - Prior to 1993, the Village of Valmeyer was a small farming community in southwestern Illinois. The Village is located 5 miles east of the Mississippi River, just south of St. Louis, Missouri. The Village is protected by levees and, consequently, has rare but extreme flood events. In the Great Flood of 1993, the Village experienced record flooding. The 1993 flood inundated almost the entire Village for months. It caused substantial damage to over 200 homes.

DENVER, CO - On May 17, 1999, Denver’s Urban Drainage and Flood Control District (UDFCD) became one of the first partners to sign an agreement with FEMA under the Cooperating Technical Communities (CTC) initiative (now Cooperating Technical Partners [CTP] initiative). As Scott Tucker, Executive Director of UDFCD, sees it, "The thrust of the [CTP initiative] is for us to work together to create and maintain accurate up-to-date flood hazard data for the 32 communities participating in the National Flood Insurance Program which are served by [UDFCD]."