Cypress Edition | January 2023

CITY & COUNTY

Top city & county stories to watch in 2023

Updated ood maps expected in 2023

FLOOD MAPS: FROM MODELING TO ADOPTION The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Harris County Flood Control District have been working on concurrent ood mapping projects for Harris County. MAAPNEXT PROJECT (completed) Work on the HCFCD’s Modeling, Assessment and Awareness Project begins. 2019 The HCFCD reports being 70% done with ood plain maps, projecting FEMA will release preliminary maps in spring or summer 2022. May 2021 Jan. 25, 2022 The HCFCD reports being 96% done with its work and shifts its projection

BY RACHEL CARLTON

HCFCD bond passed in 2018. HCFCD Executive Director Tina Petersen said the project is helping produce dierent maps than what is available nationally from FEMA. “What the residents will get [with MAAP- next] is comprehensive ood plain modeling as well as a suite of ood risk tools … to inform their understanding of their risks,” she said. Hannan said MAAPnext uses updated rainfall and topographic data to create more comprehensive maps than the ones available in recent years. He said previous ood events, such as Hurricane Harvey, have shown more than 60% of the ooding was outside the ood plain. “It’s not a regulatory map [designating] 100-year or 300-year [ood zones], but we are showing the local ooding [not] from an insur- ance point of view,” Hannan said. Ocials said MAAPnext’s dashboard will complement the release of FEMA’s maps. A process will then begin to revise the maps before they become ocial in late 2024 or 2025. After a 90-day public comment period, communities will adopt or amend their ood plain management ordinances.

HARRIS COUNTY The Federal Emergency Management Agency will release Harris County’s preliminary ood insurance rate maps sometime in 2023, according to Harris County Flood Control District ocials. In a May 2021 Harris County Commissioners Court update, the HCFCD projected FEMA would release maps in the spring or summer of 2022 but has continually pushed back its estimate. FEMA ocials could not conrm a release date. Federal law requires FEMA to assess if ood maps need to be revised or updated at least every ve years. Local ood control entities provide information for those maps, which show ood risk and mandate the purchase of ood insurance in high-risk areas. HCFCD Planning Division Director Ataul Hannan said FEMA’s ood maps have not been updated countywide since 2007, but several of the areas making up the maps have changed due to the completion of HCFCD projects. Work on the countywide update began in 2019 with the advent of the Modeling, Assessment and Awareness Project, or MAAPnext, which is funded by FEMA grants and the $2.5 billion

for FEMA’s map release to summer or fall 2022. Feb. 22, 2022 The HCFCD says it has sent mapping data to FEMA.

RELEASE OF PRELIMINARY MAPS

18-24-month period after release: • Residents have 90 days to provide feedback on the FIRMs, which may be revised before being nalized. • Communities have six months to adopt or amend ood plain ordinances based on the new FIRMs. SOURCES: HARRIS COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCYCOMMUNITY IMPACT 2023, at which point the MAAPnext dashboard goes live. The HCFCD and FEMA will hold open houses. 2023 FEMA expects to release preliminary ood insurance rate maps, or FIRMs, in

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