RALEIGH – On Thursday, February 28th, the residents and business community of Mitchell County will have the opportunity to review and ask questions about preliminary copies of newly updated Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) developed for the French Broad River Basins. The maps will be on display beginning at 6:00 p.m.; a presentation on the material will begin at 7:00 p.m. The meeting will be at the Mitchell County Senior Center at 152 Ledger School Road in Bakersville.

Digital versions of the Mitchell County preliminary maps are currently available for public review by contacting your local planning department or searching the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping website at www.ncfloodmaps.com. Mitchell County residents who visit the site will find an ‘address locator tool' to help them locate individual properties and see their relationship to mapped flood prone areas. Other tools are available to assist them with viewing and downloading digital data from the website.

The February 28 public meeting provides an opportunity for Mitchell County residents to see the results of the advanced digital technology used to create the new flood maps. County and municipal officials will be on hand to help residents locate particular properties on the maps and determine their level of flood risk. Representatives from the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program and North Carolina Floodplain Management will make short presentations on the map production process, features of the new maps, how they can be used to reduce future losses due to flooding, and their connection with flood insurance and floodplain management. Attendees may 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.

Mitchell County's new Flood Insurance Rate Maps were produced by the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety under a unique partnership with FEMA. The partnership agreement, signed in September 2000, assigns to the department the primary responsibility for creating and maintaining all Flood Insurance Rate Maps for 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.

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NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information on the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program, visit the web site at www.ncfloodmaps.com. More information on the public meeting can be obtained by contacting Keynan Phillips, Mitchell County Director of Building and Permitting, 828-688-4771, or Randy Mundt, Outreach Planner with the State Mapping Program, 919-715-5711 ext. 119.