The Harris County Flood Control District announced it has launched a new tool to help Harris County, Texas, residents gain knowledge about floodplains and their flooding risks.
The Flood Education Mapping Tool can be found online at www.hcfcd.org and builds on the interactive mapping tool created through Tropical Storm Allison Recovery Project (TSARP), a multi-year, joint initiative spearheaded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Flood Control District in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Allison in 2001.
TSARP produced a new Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM or floodplain map) that was adopted by Harris County, the city of Houston and the county’s 33 municipalities in 2007.
Since TSARP, members of Harris County’s real estate, engineering and governmental communities as well as residential and business property owners have used the mapping tool on the TSARP Web site as an educational source to learn the location of structures relative to the mapped 1 percent (100-year), 0.2 percent (500-year) and coastal floodplains.
Some of the prominent new features of the Flood Education Mapping Tool include:
- Regular updates to mapped floodplains in Harris County as they are revised by FEMA
- An interactive legend with pop-up ‘tool tips’ that help users get the most of out of each legend item
- Easy map navigation
- Known ponding areas where stormwater typically collects when rainfall exceeds the capacity of a street’s drainage system or the land’s ability to drain
Complementary to this effort to provide the public with tools to better understand flooding risks, the Flood Control District also recently introduced the Floodplain Information Line at 713-684-4150.
The Floodplain Information Line provides answers in English and in Spanish to frequently asked questions about topics including:
- General floodplain information
- How to obtain an official FIRM
- How to obtain an official floodplain determination from official sources, such as mortgage lenders and insurance agents (floodplain determinations are not made by FEMA, the Flood Control District or by local floodplain administrators)
- Information on flood insurance and elevation certificates
Source: Harris County Flood Control District
Topics Flood New Markets
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