Flood Mitigation Plan Documents

Chatham County's Flood Mitigation Plan

Why is a Flood Mitigation Plan needed?

Unincorporated Chatham County (UCC) prepared the “Flood Mitigation Plan” because it is required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). UCC must actively participate in FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) so that flood insurance policies can be made available to area residents. UCC also voluntarily participates in the NFIP, Community Rating System (CRS). By participating in the CRS program, flood insurance policies can be sold at discounted rates to property owners and renters. Currently, discounts off flood insurance rates are as high as 25 percent. A condition for participating in the CRS program is to require all communities that have greater than 50 repetitive flood loss properties to also have a Flood Mitigation Plan. A repetitive flood loss property is one for which two or more claims of $1,000 or more have been paid by the NFIP within any 10-year period since 1978. UCC has a total of 123 repetitive flood loss properties, therefore, a flood mitigation plan is required.