NEW FLOOD INSURANCE RATE MAPS AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC REVIEW IN ONSLOW COUNTY 

RALEIGH – On Tuesday, December 7th, residents of the western portion of Onslow County located in the Cape Fear River Basin will have the opportunity to review and ask questions about preliminary copies of new, updated Flood Insurance Rate Maps at a public meeting in Verona. The meeting will take place between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. at the Verona Volunteer Fire Department located at 101 Verona Road. The Onslow County Planning and Development Department is hosting the meeting.

The December 7th Public Participation Meeting provides an opportunity for residents of Onslow County to see the results of the advanced digital technology used to create the new maps. County officials will be on hand to help residents locate particular properties on the maps and determine their level of flood risk. At 6:30 p.m. representatives from the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program and North Carolina Floodplain Management will make a short presentation on the map production process, features of the new maps, and how they can be used to reduce future losses due to flooding. Attendees will also see a demonstration of the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Information System. Following the presentation, state and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) representatives will be available to answer questions about the mapping process, flood insurance coverage, and floodplain management topics.

Copies of the complete set of maps for Onslow County are currently available for public review at the Onslow County Floodplain Administration office, 604 College Street, Jacksonville, North Carolina. The maps can also be viewed online using the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Information System. A link to this system is provided on the website of the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program: www.ncfloodpmaps.com . Onslow County residents who visit the site will find an Address Locator Tool to help them locate individual properties and see their relationship to floodplains. Other tools are available to assist them with viewing and downloading digital data from the website.

Onslow County’s new Flood Insurance Rate Maps, which were presented to local officials on October 28, 2004, are among the many to be produced and issued by the State of North Carolina under a unique partnership with FEMA. The partnership agreement, signed September 2000, designates North Carolina as a Cooperating Technical State and delegates the primary responsibility for the creation and maintenance of all Flood Insurance Rate Maps to North Carolina. The effort to remap the state’s floodplains was spurred by the devastation caused by Hurricane Floyd, which flooded large areas of eastern North Carolina and left thousands of people homeless. This disaster highlighted North Carolina’s vulnerability to natural disasters and the need for accurate, up-to-date floodplain maps.

NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information on the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program, visit their Web site at www.ncfloodmaps.com. More information on the Public Participation Meeting can be obtained from Ms. Karen Wagley, Onslow County Floodplain Administrator, at (910) 347-6782, extension 318.