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Overview

Levees and their ability to provide a minimum level of flood protection have become an issue across the country. As levee status changes or comes under review, community officials need to be able to communicate effectively with residents and business owners, the insurance community, lenders and real estate agents, as well as the media and community leaders. The materials in this toolkit were created to provide local government officials or agencies with templated, flexible materials to adapt and use in addressing flood risks behind levees and the flood insurance implications of levee status changes.

The materials cover many - but not all - of the communications needs of communities whose flood risk zones and Special Flood Hazard Areas are being remapped or revised, reflecting new information about levees. Users are encouraged to adapt the materials as needed and use the fact sheet templates to create any additional pieces they may need.

Toolkit Structure

The toolkit is separated into three sections to address three core levee status designations:

• Situation #1: Levees are De-accredited
• Situation #2: Levees are Newly Accredited
• Situation #3: Levees are Provisionally Accredited

Click on the section that most closely identifies the situation in your community. As you enter one of these three sections, you will see a brief explanation of the situation, the flood insurance implications and the importance of reaching out to residents and stakeholder groups. You can then choose to view materials created specifically for communicating with, and through, the following audience groups:

• Residents and Business Owners;
• Insurance Professionals;
• Lenders and Real Estate Agents;
• Community Leaders; and
• Media

Each audience-specific page provides an explanation of the importance of reaching the particular group and a listing of materials and other resources you may find helpful, including:

• Template materials available to adapt and distribute to this audience
• FEMA resources that can be used to provide additional background information
• Information about levee outreach conducted in Sacramento, CA, and Illinois; descriptions of these projects are included as are samples of outreach materials used
• Web sites offering more information

Materials and Formats

All of the template materials in the toolkit were created in Microsoft Word to include key messages and information, but also allow materials to be customized by end users. Red brackets clearly mark areas where you will want to include information specific to your community. Directives inside the brackets suggest the appropriate information to include. Because they exist in Microsoft Word, the template documents are not designed for high-resolution printing, but they can be printed in color. When printing in color, you may want to print a single copy of documents and have color copies made. FEMA resource materials are provided as PDF documents to protect their integrity. They can be printed, but not changed.