Iberia and Vermilion Flood Maps Delayed 

Guidance documents are available online

Release Date: February 14, 2006
Release Number: 1603-345

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BATON ROUGE, La. -- New Advisory Base Flood Elevation maps for Iberia and Vermilion parishes are still on the drawing boards. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had planned to make the maps available over the past weekend, but data analysis for the maps has caused delays. The new advisory maps are expected to take another three weeks to reach completion.

Wayne Rickard, mitigation section chief for FEMA, said that the data for Vermilion and Iberia is still being plotted onto maps and that those maps, along with St. Mary Parish, are expected to be ready around the second week of March. Rickard said that while the advisory maps are pending, advisory base flood elevation guidance was released to these parishes December 1st and it is valid. These documents address eleven parishes and are available online at: http://www.fema.gov/hazards/floods/recoverydata/katrina_la_resources.shtm#guidance

A base flood elevation is the height at which there is a one percent or greater chance of flooding in a given year. It is the minimum building standard of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Even when rebuilding outside of a flood plain, flood insurance purchase is still highly recommended.

Advisory Base Flood Elevation maps have previously been made available for four other parishes: St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany and Tangipahoa. Flood maps are provided to local governments to help builders and engineers determine how high to set construction projects in flood plains to avoid flood damage during severe storms.

FEMA manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation activities, works with state and local emergency managers, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program. FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003

Last Modified: Tuesday, 14-Feb-2006 10:39:13