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FEMA Grants Flood Map Extension to Fort Bend County

 

At a July 16, 2008 meeting in Washington set up and attended by Congressman Nick Lampson, County Judge Bob Hebert and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) top official, Administrator David Paulison, reached agreement to extend a critical deadline and ensure that Fort Bend residents living behind levees in Fort Bend County can be assured that those levees can be fully certified to 100 year flood elevation protection by FEMA when the preliminary revised maps are published. As a result of this meeting, the deadline for submission of final local data for this mapping project has been moved from September 30, 2008 to December 31, 2008 or later.

Over the last two years, Fort Bend County has partnered with FEMA to update the county’s flood plain maps. Today, levee districts within the county are spending over $45,000,000 in local money (without federal funding) to build or rebuild levees as necessary to protect to the new 100-year flood elevation and higher.

Originally, FEMA set a September 30, 2008 deadline for the printing of the preliminary maps.  However, the county did not feel that this deadline would give experts sufficient time to review the final river model once it was received from FEMA’s contracted engineer.  If counties fail to complete mapping before the target date, FEMA will not certify the levees and residents would be forced to buy costly flood insurance on top of the taxes already required by their respective Levee Improvement Districts.

County Judge Bob Hebert stated “I sincerely thank Congressman Nick Lampson for his effective intercession with FEMA Administrator David Paulison in support of our effort to extend the deadline for filing final data for the Federal Flood Plain Remapping Project for Fort Bend County from September 30 to December 31, or later, depending on the outcome of next weeks technical review.  My meeting with Administrator Paulison and Congressman Lampson was very constructive and should assure that we have the time needed to thoroughly review and adjust the entire river model in detail before the preliminary revised maps are published. This collaborative effort between Fort Bend County, FEMA and Congressman Lampson should ensure that we publish the most accurate flood plain maps that current technology will allow.”

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