Free Online Trainings Offered in April

We recently received an announcement that 5 online trainings will be offered throughout the month of April.  These trainings will be hosted by STARR, one of the FEMA contractors that has been working on FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) updates throughout New England and the rest of the United States.

The trainings that will be offered cover several different topics that may be relevant and helpful to anyone who has some involvement with or interest in floodplain management.  Many of the courses are eligible for CEC credits for Certified Floodplain Managers.

To register for a course or to check on upcoming courses, navigate to http://j.mp/starrwebtraining and click the “Upcoming” tab. Below are the available courses offered in April. We understand that there will be monthly updates on upcoming courses. Courses like the MT1 training and NFIP basics are repeated frequently.

April 11, 1:00 pm Eastern – Elevation Certificates for A Zones

Training on the proper way to complete FEMA Form 81-31 and best practices for using the Elevation Certificate in the floodplain development review process. Special consideration to using the form in A Zone without a BFE. 2 CECs for ASFPM Certified Floodplain Managers (CFMs) that register and attend individually and pass the learning objectives quiz at the end of the session.

April 17, 1:00 pm Eastern – Biggert Waters NFIP Reform Act of 2012

The Biggert-Waters National Flood Insurance Program Reform Act of 2012 (BW-12) resulted in major changes to the NFIP. This session, presented by FEMA Region X, will provide an overview of the changes and what is being done to implement the legislation. Continuing Education and Professional Development Credits are available.

April 18, 1:00 pm Eastern – NFIP Basics

This one-hour session will cover the history of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), basic terminology, governing authority, and provide an overview of the community’s role in floodplain management through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The target audience are state and local officials who need a general understanding of the ins and outs of the program and guidance on where to go for more training and answers. Continuing Education and Professional Development Credits are available.

April 24, 1:00 pm Eastern – Preparing Data for Hazus

This session is targeted to those interested in how to update Hazus with local data from parcel/assessors information. We will describe the data required to update the Hazus general building stock data. The session will feature tutorials on how to update data using the Comprehensive Data Management System. We will also cover what is required for a user-defined analysis for the Earthquake and Flood modules. Continuing Education and Professional Development Credits are available.

April 25, 1:00 pm Eastern – MT-1 Basics

This webinar is designed to give a broad overview of the MT-1 review process and review procedures that will help applicants submit a completed MT-1 application to facilitate processing by FEMA. Attendees will learn what is required to submit a complete application, including how to fill out the forms and use FEMA’s new online LOMC submittal tool. In addition, the course will outline the differences between LOMAs, eLOMAs, LOMR-Fs, and conditional LOMCs. Participants will learn how to submit more complete LOMC requests that can be processed more quickly and with fewer additional data requests. The community’s role with regards to the MT-1 process will also be discussed. This course is designed for State and Local officials, engineers, surveyors, and anyone interested in learning more about the MT-1 process. Continuing Education and Professional Development Credits are available.

 

If you have questions about the webinars or course information, please contact the New England region STARR contact, Alex Sirotek:

Alex Sirotek, CFM
STARR
FEMA Region 1 Regional Service Center
99 High Street, 3rd Floor
Boston, MA 02110
617-574-4402, SirotekAR@cdmsmith.com

CFM exam to be held on 4/15/13 in Montpelier, VT

We wanted to announce that a spring Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM) exam has been scheduled and confirmed for Monday, April 15^th from 9am-12pm located in Montpelier.   

What is the CFM program all about you may ask?  Here is a small excerpt from the ASFPM website about the Program:

The Association of State Floodplain Managers has established a national program for professional certification of floodplain managers. The program recognizes continuing education and professional development that enhance the knowledge and performance of local, state, federal, and private-sector floodplain managers.

The primary goal of the ASFPM Certified Floodplain Manager Program (CFM Program) is to help reduce the nation's flood losses and protect and enhance the natural resources and functions of its floodplains by improving the knowledge and abilities of floodplain managers in the United States.  A second goal of the CFM Program is to increase the prominence of floodplain management in decision-making by local officials and the public.

Additional information regarding ASFPM and the CFM program can be found at ASFPM’s website or the CFM Program page: www.floods.org,  CFM page

General Exam Information:

The exam will be held at the central Agency of Natural Resource office located in the National Life Building in Montpelier.  If you are interested, you are now able to register for this exam with the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) office.  All registration forms and ASFPM membership applications should be sent to the ASFPM office in Madison, WI. 

If you are not a member of ASFPM, then the cost to register for the exam is $375.  However, if you join ASFPM as a member for $110, the exam registration fee will only be $100 for a total fee of $210.  If you are planning to become an ASFPM member and register for the exam at the same time, you should send the ASFPM membership form, the exam registration form and payment for both together for the ease of processing.

Please note that all exam registrations must be received by ASFPM no later than 2 weeks before the exam date.  This means that all registration forms need to be received by the ASFPM office no later than Monday, April 1, otherwise you will not be able to sit for the exam.  The CFM exam registration form and the ASFPM membership form can be found here.

Review Session:

We will also be offering an all-day review session for the exam on Thursday, April 11.   The review session will be held from 9am-5pm in the ANR offices located in Montpelier at the National Life Building. Please contact Rebecca Pfeiffer (rebecca.pfeiffer@state.vt.us) in advance if you intend to be at the review session so that we can be sure that there will be enough room.

 

We apologize for the short notification and turnaround time for the exam.  However, if you are interested in taking the exam but would not be ready to do so for the 4/15 date, please contact Rebecca so that your name will remain on our list of people to contact  later in the year for another CFM exam this fall or winter. 

There will also be another opportunity to take the CFM exam at the annual ASFPM conference which will be held in Hartford, CT this June. The exam will be offered on June 10^th & 14^th.  You can contact Rebecca or the ASFPM office for more information about the CFM exams offered at the annual conference. 

Again, please let Rebecca know if you have any questions and pass along the word to whomever else you think may be interested in sitting for the exam. 

Taking Names for ASFPM Scholarship Wait List

Hello all,

It's been a while since we have posted a new message, but hopefully this announcement is worth the wait!  We would like to announce that we will be starting a wait list for conference registration scholarships.  The scholarships would be available to any "local official"  interested in attending the 2013 Association of State Floodplain Manager’s (ASFPM) conference.  The term "local official" includes local or regional planners, community staff, NPO or NGO employees, state employees, students, etc. 

This year, the ASFPM conference will be held in Hartford, CT from June 9-14^th.  1995 was the last time the ASFPM conference was held in New England so this is a great opportunity to be part of an international flood conference with typically well over 1,200 participants.

Right now, all of our scholarships have been offered, however, it is very likely that additional money may be available. Therefore, we are soliciting interested people for a wait list if the additional money does come through, which appears likely to happen.  

If you are interested in adding your name to the wait list, please contact Rebecca Pfeiffer by Friday, April 5^th  (rebecca.pfeiffer@state.vt.us).  We should have an idea by that time how many additional scholarships may be available.  Once we know the number of additional available scholarships, we will extend an invitation to those on the wait list on a first-come, first-served basis.

The scholarships will pay for either the “local official” registration fee of $385 to attend the Full Conference or a One-Day registration fee of $250.  All other travel expenses (hotel, meals, parking, mileage, etc.) incurred to attend the conference will not be covered under this scholarship and will be the sole responsibility of the conference registrant.  

If you have been interested in obtaining your Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM) certification, there will be 2 exam review sessions offered as a workshop with the exam being offered following the workshop.  The person taking the exam would need to register for the CFM exam before the conference, so for more information regarding the CFM exam please contact Rebecca Pfeiffer.

Please note:

-      The registration covers one workshop or field tour.  If you are selected to receive a scholarship and select more than one workshop or field tour, you will be responsible for the additional charges.  TBD on whether you pay for add-ons upfront or when you show up at the conference. 

-         If you are interested in signing up for the one day registration, please be aware that the one day does not include a workshop/field tour

If you are interested in attending the conference and will need hotel accommodations, I highly recommend booking your hotel room as early as possible.  Both conference hotels offer government employees a per diem rate of $104/night.  The links to reserve a hotel room can be found on ASFPM's conference web page: http://asfpmconference.org/.  Local government employees are also entitled to the government employee rate.

Mitigation Ideas: A Resource for Reducing Risk to Natural Hazards.

FEMA has recently released a new document for communities considering how to plan for and adapt to natural hazards.   The Mitigation Ideas includes some material relevant to Vermont.

Follow the link here: Mitigation Ideas: A Resource for Reducing Risk to Natural Hazards. to download the .pdf.

Flood Insurance Information for Washington County - Handout 2013

Information online:      vtfpm.blogspot.com

Map online:                  tinyurl.com/vt-atlas

A new Digital Flood Insurance Rate Map (DFIRM) will become in effect in Washington County on March 19, 2013.  This is an important time to review the map to identify the risks to your home or structure and to understand your flood insurance options and requirements.  Structures that will be identified as being in the Special Flood Hazard Area for the first time may benefit by getting flood insurance now before the new map goes into effect.

The cost of flood insurance in high risk areas (Special Flood Hazard Areas mapped as Zone A or Zone AE) currently costs around $1,400 per year for a $170,000 structure.  Flood insurance in low or moderate risk areas (Zone X, C, B) costs less.  Additionally, most structures in Zone X or C may be able to secure flood insurance as a “Preferred Risk Policy” (PRP) for around $400.

Suggested Actions:

1.  This week - Is your home is in Zone A or AE on the new DFIRM?   (tinyurl.com/vt-atlas)

Is your home in Zone A or AE on the current FIRM? (www.msc.fema.gov)

2. By early February - If your structure will be identified as being in a high risk area (Zone A or AE) in March – but is not currently – then you may be able to get a low cost PRP policy now and renew it (at least twice) before the insurance premium is raised step-wise to the full actuarial cost.

3. If your structure is in a Zone X (or Shaded Zone X) flood insurance may still be important to protect the value of your structure from the impact of overland flow or flooding-caused erosion.

4.  Talk to your homeowner’s insurance agent to secure flood insurance.

5. If you have a flood insurance policy that is not at full actuarial rate – don’t drop coverage!

6.      If your structure is in a high flood risk area – identify options (such as elevation) to reduce the risk of damage and the cost of flood insurance.

Flood Maps:

Vermont Natural Resource Atlas tinyurl.com/vt-atlas now has the Washington County DFIRM data available (find under Watershed Protection and Special Flood Hazard Areas (Preliminary).  

FEMA Map Service Center  www.msc.fema.gov  has current and historic FIRM maps - look under Product Catalog  The current maps have a white background.

 The municipal office has paper copies of the current FIRM and digital copies of the upcoming DFIRM.

 Contacts

Vermont Rivers Program   www.vtwaterquality.org   

Watershed Management Div. /Dept. of Environmental Conservation/Agency of Natural Resources

Floodplain and River Corridor Program Blog  vtfpm.blogspot.com

Ned Swanberg  ned.swanberg@state.vt.us     802.490.6160

If you send a request to Ned, he can make a map of the area near your home showing a rough version of the current “Q3” and new (3/19/13 DFIRM) mapped boundaries of the Special Flood Hazard Area.

Links and Resources 

Flood Insurance Information:  www.floodsmart.gov

Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) identifies Special Flood Hazard Areas labeled as Zone A, AE, AO, A 1- 30.    The DFIRM is a new officially “digital” version of a FIRM.

How to Make a FIRMette (how to make a map of the current FIRM data).

Preferred Risk Policy (PRP)  Flood insurance option for low to moderate risk areas without a history of flood claims. 

Elevation Certificate (EC) – is stamped by a surveyor or engineer and documents the elevation of the lowest floor of a structure.

Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA) is completed by a surveyor or engineer to describe the location of the structure (or an area including the structure) relative to the mapped flood hazard.  MT-EZ: Application Form for Single Residential Lot or Structure Amendments to National Flood Insurance Program Maps    Online LOMC tool: www.fema.gov/online-lomc

Cheaper Flood Insurance – Five Ways to Reduce Premiums – recommendations on reducing the impact of flooding on structures and their contents.

Community Rating System (CRS) – A National Flood Insurance Program initiative to discount

Pre-FIRM designates structures that were built before the community joined the National Flood Insurance Program.  Pre-FIRM structures are rated as a group against the risk to the group.

Summary of Map Actions (SOMA) was sent to each municipality and identifies how the new DFIRM will effect the recognized zone of a structure with a LOMA or letter of map change.

Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 – made significant changes to the insurance component of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) with the intent of making the program financially sound.  This Act has begun a process of changes to cause flood insurance rates to approach actuarial rates.

Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service - National Weather Service