RALEIGH - On Tuesday, October 28th, residents of Craven County will have the opportunity to review and ask questions about preliminary copies of new, updated Flood Insurance Rate Maps at a public meeting in New Bern. The meeting will take place between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. in the Craven County Agricultural Building, located at 300 Industrial Boulevard. The Craven County Planning and Inspections Department is hosting the meeting.

Copies of the complete set of maps for Craven County are currently available for public review at the Planning and Inspections office in the Human Services Annex building at 2828 Neuse Boulevard. 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 . Craven 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.

The October 28th Public Participation Meeting provides an opportunity for residents of Craven 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 utilized 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 FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) representatives will be available to answer questions about the mapping process, flood insurance coverage, and floodplain management topics.

Craven County's new Flood Insurance Rate Maps, which were presented to local officials on September 4, 2003, 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 the Web site at www.ncfloodmaps.com. More information on the Public Participation Meeting can be obtained from Ms. Stephanie Currier, Craven County Assistant Planning Director, at (252) 636-6618.