City Maps A Better Flood Response

As they prepare for an era of more super-storms, homeowners in flood-prone parts of New Haven could see their insurance premiums drop thanks to a new city map.

The new map is part of an effort by Building, City Plan and Emergency Operations Center (EOC) officials to propel New Haven from Class 10 to at least Class 6 in the federal government’s ranking system for storm-preparendess.

The city hopes to earn enough points — at least 2,000 — from its floodplain management activities to not only fortify the city against future floods, but also help residents save some money on federal flood insurance, according to EOC Director Rick Fontana (pictured).

One key move was to create a new map (pictured) to identify emergency evacuation routes in the City Point, East Shore, and Fair Haven/Fair Haven Heights neighborhoods in the event of flooding.

“We never had identified emergency evacuation routes” before creating the new map, Fontana said. ​“We had always gone off the regional map that the COG [regional Council of Governments] had facilitated. It wasn’t clearly defined as city residents.”

In addition to the maps, the city has created pamphlets to help citizens to cope with hurricanes and floods. And City Plan department has updated its hazardous mitigation plan. (Read the latest versionhere.)

“Those are all critical components to flood preparedness,” Fontana said.

They are also critical tasks for earning recognition from the National Flood Insurance Program Community Rating System, which the city doesn’t currently have. The system is designed to encourage cities to do more to prepare for floods — above the requirements of the National Flood Insurance Program’s minimum requirements to prevent lost property and life, according to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management website.

Being a part of the CRS system allows communities access to free technical assistance on some of their floodplain management activities in addition to helping those communities qualify for more federal assistance programs.

And it cuts homeowners’ federal flood-insurance bills.

New Haven is considered a Class 10 community by the federal government. That means it is not a CRS community and not eligible for a discount on federal flood insurance. Discounts are given in increments of 5 percent; a community’s class ranking can make it eligible for as much as 45 percent in special flood hazard areas and as much as 10 percent in non-special flood hazardous areas. CRS communities ranked Class 1 are eligible for the biggest discounts.

Class status is based on ​“18 creditable activities” in four areas: public information; mapping and regulations; flood damage reduction; and flood preparedness, according to the FEMA website.

Having a strategy for educating the public and for pushing out notifications during an emergency, such as through the Everbridge, robo-call system, also is part of the city’s efforts that can earn it credit in the rating system, Fontana said. For every additional activity that the city adds, it can earn anywhere from 1 point to more than 4,500 points, and raise its class.

“I think we’re looking at the 2,000 range, which would give a 10 percent reduction,” Fontana said.

City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg (pictured) said in addition to the mapping and the updating of the hazardous mitigation plan, the city has tracked down all the building permits for buildings built in a floodplain over the last decade. She said officials also are working on the public information and education component.

“The common thread of all of these activities is making New Haven more resilient,” Gilvarg said. And she thinks the city might be in position to go from not being recognized as a CRS community to obtaining a nearly mid-range ranking.

“We’re this close,” Gilvarg said, while holding two fingers up, of the efforts to obtain a CRS ranking. ​“There will be a site visit in the winter, possibly in January.”

“It’s city employees working to try to reduce what people in a flood area have to pay because its expensive,” Fontana said of the efforts. ​“If we can make a small difference it is better than no difference.”