February 16, 2007 - FEMA Region VI and the FEMA New
Orleans Transition Office (TRO) held a series of Executive Group
Coordination meetings during February 13-16, 2007 with leaders
from the 15 Parishes and local communities affected by the Louisiana
Gulf Coast Flood Data Recovery Project (LaMP). The purpose
of these kick-off meetings was to initiate dialogue between FEMA
officials and those community officials who will be using the
flood recovery information as they adopt and implement the new
Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps (DFIRMs) in their local areas.
These new preliminary maps will be released to the community
leaders later this year. The new maps will incorporate
flood recovery information and new storm surge modeling that
has been produced by FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The meetings were held at local sites convenient to the Parishes. The
LaMP Team (FEMA and its technical consultants) began the meetings
with a presentation describing the LA Mapping Project, the surge
modeling, and a request to implement a Charter. The LaMP
objective is to help the community leaders better understand
how the flood recovery data was produced and the processes used
in developing the new digital flood insurance rate maps. The
presentation was followed by a question and answer period and
one-on-one discussions regarding the material presented.
FEMA discussed how they can assist the communities by ensuring
critical information is communicated in a timely, accurate, and
consistent manner. Discussion items included; understanding
flood risks, new technologies in producing modernized maps, and
the work of the Corps of Engineers in storm surge modeling.
The meetings were well attended by Parish and community officials
and other FEMA invitees such as the Army Corps of Engineers.
The next Executive Group Coordination meetings are scheduled
for summer 2007. Meanwhile, FEMA is also planning coordinating
meetings with two other groups.
This spring FEMA will host a Technical Group and a Stakeholder
Group in a series of technical workshops and user/stakeholder
meetings respectively. The technical workshops will be
geared primarily for engineers, surveyors, and others knowledgeable
about technical approaches in the development of flood data. The
Stakeholder meetings will include Floodplain Managers from affected
communities and individuals with an understanding of the remapping
impacts such as insurance and mortgage companies.
If you have specific questions, click
here.
A excerpt of the presentation can be downloaded by clicking
here. |
