Rensselaer County residents and community officials are invited to attend an informational meeting on Tuesday, November 18, on the new flood maps being developed for portions of the County. New maps have been developed for communities along the Hoosic River, including the Towns of Hoosick, Pittstown and Schaghticoke and the Villages of Hoosick Falls, Valley Falls and Schaghticoke.
The meeting will be hosted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), which are developing the new maps. State and federal representatives will be on hand at this public meeting from 4 to 8 pm at the HAYC3 Armory, Perry Room, 80 Church Street, Hoosick Falls.
Although there will not be any formal presentations at the meeting, State and federal representatives will be available to help residents identify flood risks and discuss risk reduction and flood insurance options with property owners. Residents may stop in at any time during the open house to meet individually with FEMA or State officials.
“We encourage people to attend the open house to learn more about the process of developing new flood maps and how this may affect them,” FEMA’s Regional Mitigation Director Michael Moriarty said.
The new maps are the result of Map Modernization, a five year, $1 billion Congressionally directed program to provide updated, digitized flood maps for 92 percent of the nation’s population. The mapping project is part of a long term FEMA floodplain mapping process.
Residents of the remapped communities can check their flood plain status on the new, preliminary flood map at their municipal offices or online. The FEMA website for the new maps and mapping information is http://www.msc.fema.gov.
If a property is located in the high risk flood zone, there is a Congressionally mandated flood insurance requirement for all structures that have a mortgage with a federally regulated lender or have a federally backed mortgage. In addition, all County and local public buildings located in that flood zone must carry flood insurance to fully qualify for Federal Disaster Assistance.
If you are outside of the high-risk flood zone on your community’s current flood map but are inside the zone on the preliminary map, you may purchase initial flood insurance coverage through a low-cost Preferred Risk Policy (PRP). Any resident or business within a municipality that participates in the National Flood Insurance Program may purchase a flood insurance policy even if the property is outside of the highest risk flood zone.