RALEIGH - On Wednesday, October 29th, the residents of Johnston 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 Smithfield. The meeting will take place between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. in the Old Superior Court Room (Courtroom 4) in the Johnston County Courthouse, located at 212 East Market Street. The Johnston County Public Utilities Department is hosting the meeting.

Copies of the complete set of maps for Johnston County are currently available for public review at the Johnston County Public Utilities and Planning Departments offices in the Johnston County Land Use Center located at 309 E. Market Street. 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 . Johnston 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 29th Public Participation Meeting provides an opportunity for residents of Johnston 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.

Johnston County's new Flood Insurance Rate Maps, which were presented to local officials on October 1, 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 their Web site at www.ncfloodmaps.com. More information on the Public Participation Meeting can be obtained from Ms. Chandra C. Coats, Johnston County Environmental Protection Administrator, at (919) 209-8333.