Final Flood elevation for City of Blair letterO
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Emergency Uederal Management
Washington, D.C. 20472
CERTIFIED MAIL
RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED
July 6, 2011
The Honorable James Realph
Mayor, City of Blair
218 South Sixteenth Street
Blair, Nebraska 68008
Dear Mayor Re.alph:
IN REPLY REFER TO:
19P
Community: City of Blair, Nebraska
Community No.: 310228
Map Panels Affected: See FIRM Index
This is to formally notify you of the final flood elevation determination for the City of Blair, in
compliance with Title 44, Chapter I, Part 67, Section 67.11, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). This
section requires that notice of final flood elevations shall be sent to the Chief Executive Officer of the
community, all individual appellants, and the State Coordinating Agency, and shall be published in the
Federal Register.
On July 17, 1995, the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) issued a Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) that identified'the Special Flood Hazard Areas
(SFHAs), the areas subject to inundation by the base (1- percent - annual- chance) flood, in your
community. Recently, FEMA completed a re- evaluation of flood hazards in your community. On June 4,
2010, FEMA provided you with Preliminary copies of the FIRM and Flood Insurance- Study (FIS) report
that identify existing flood hazards in your community, including Base Flood Elevations (BFEs). The
proposed BFEs for your community were published in the The Enterprise on October 22, 2010 and
October 29, 2010, and in the Federal Register, at Part 67, Volume 71, Volume 75, Pages 61379 and
61380, on October 5, 2010.
The statutory 90 -day appeal period, which was initiated on the second newspaper publication date cited
above, has ended. FEMA did not receive any appeals of the proposed BFEs during that time.
Accordingly, the BFEs for your community are considered final. The final rule for BFEs will be
published in the Federal Register as soon as possible. The FIRM for your community will, become .
effective on January 6, 2012. Before the effective date, FEMA will send you final printed "copies of the
FIRM and FIS report.
Because the FIS report establishing the BFEs for your community has been completed, certain additional
requirements must be met under Section 1361 of the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, as amended,
within 6 months from the date of this letter. Prior to January 6, 2012, your community is required, as a
condition of continued eligibility in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), to adopt or show
evidence of adoption of floodplain management regulations that meet the standards of Paragraph 60,3(d)
of the enclosed NFIP regulations (44 CFR 59, etc.) by the effective date of the FIRM. These standards
are the minimum requirements and do not supersede any State or local requirements of a more
stringent nature.
It must be emphasized that all the standards specified in Paragraph 60.3(d) of the NFIP regulations must
be enacted in a legally enforceable document. This includes adoption of the current effective FIRM and
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FIS report to which the regulations apply and other modifications made by this map revision. Some of
the standards should already have been enacted by your community in order to establish initial eligibility
in the NFIP. Your community can meet any additional requirements by taking one of the following
actions:
1. Amending existing regulations to incorporate any additional requirements of Paragraph 60.3(d);
2. Adopting all the standards of Paragraph 60.3(d) into one new, comprehensive set of regulations;
or
3. Showing evidence that regulations have previously been adopted that meet or exceed the
minimum requirements of Paragraph 60.3(d).
Communities that fail to enact the necessary floodplain management regulations will be suspended from
participation in the NFIP and subject to the prohibitions contained in Section 202(a) of the Flood Disaster
Protection Act of 1973 (Public Law 93 -234) as amended.
In addition to your community using the FIRM and FIS report to manage development in the floodplain,
FEMA will use the FIRM and FIS report to establish appropriate flood insurance rates. On the effective
date of the revised FIRM, actuarial rates for flood insurance will be charged for all new structures and
substantial improvements to existing structures located in the identified SFHAs. These rates may be
higher if structures are not built in compliance with the floodplain management standards of the NFIP.
The actuarial flood insurance rates increase as the lowest elevations (including basement) of new
structures decrease in relation to the BFEs established for your community. This is an important
consideration for new construction because building at a higher elevation can greatly reduce the cost of
flood insurance.
To assist your community in maintaining the FIRM, we have enclosed a Summary of Map Actions to
document previous Letter of Map Chatige (LOMC) actions (i.e., Letters of Map Amendment (LOMAs),
Letters of Map Revision (LOMRs)) that will be superseded when the revised FIRM panels referenced
above become effective. Information on LOMCs is presented in the following four categories:
(1) LOMCs for which results have been included on the revised FIRM panels; (2) LOMCs for which
results could not be shown on the revised FIRM panels because of scale limitations or because the
LOMC issued had determined that the lots or structures involved were outside the SFHA as shown on
the FIRM; (3) LOMCs for which results have not been included on the revised FIRM panels because the
flood hazard information on which the original determinations were based are being superseded by new
flood hazard information; and (4) LOMCs issued for multiple lots or structures where the determination
for one or more of the lots or structures cannot be revalidated through an administrative process like the
LOMCs in Category 2 above. LOMCs in Category 2 will be revalidated through a single letter that
reaffirms the validity of a previously issued LOMC; the letter will be sent to your community shortly
before the effective date of the revised FIRM and will become effective 1 day after the revised FIRM
becomes effective. For the LOMCs listed in Category 4, we will review the data previously submitted
for the LOMA or LOMR request and issue a new determination for the affected properties after the
revised FIRM becomes effective.
The FIRM and FIS report for your community have been prepared in our countywide format, which
means that flood hazard information for all jurisdictions within Washington County has been combined
into one FIRM and FIS report. When the FIRM and FIS report are printed and distributed, your
community will receive only those panels that present flood hazard information for your community.
We will provide complete sets of the FIRM panels to county officials, where they will be available for
review by your community.
The FIRM panels have been computer - generated. Once the FIRM and FIS report are printed and
distributed, the digital files containing the flood hazard data for the entire county can be provided to your
community for use in a computer mapping system. These files can be used in conjunction with other
thematic data for floodplain management purposes, insurance purchase and rating requirements, and
many other planning applications. Copies of the digital files or paper copies of the FIRM panels may be
obtained by calling our FEMA Map Information eXchange (FMIX), toll free, at 1- 877 -FEMA MAP
(1- 877 - 336 - 2627). In addition, your community may be eligible for additional credits under our
Community Rating System if you implement your activities using digital mapping files.
If your community is encountering difficulties in enacting the necessary floodplain management measures
required to continue participation in the NFIP, we urge you to call the Director, Federal Insurance and
Mitigation Division of FEMA in Kansas City, Missouri, at (816) 283 -7002 for assistance. If you have
any questions concerning mapping issues in general or the enclosed Summary of Map Actions, please call
FMIX at the telephone number shown above. Additional information and resources ,your community may
find helpful regarding the NFIP and floodplain management, such as The National Flood Insurance
Program Code of Federal Regulations, Answers to Questions About the NFIP, Frequently Asked
Questions Regarding the Effects that Revised Flood Hazards have on Existing Structure, Use of Flood
Insurance Study (FIS) Data as Available Data, and National Flood Insurance Program Elevation
Certificate and Instructions, can be found on our website at http : / /www.floodmaps.fema.gov /lfd.
Paper copies of these documents may also be obtained by calling FMIX.
Sincerely,
Luis Rodriguez, P.E., Chief
Engineering Management Branch
Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration
Enclosure:
Final Summary of Map Actions
cc: Community Map Repository
Philip Green, F loodplam Administrator /Assistant .City Administrator, City of Blair