Flood Resiliency Resources: Protect your Community from Flooding and Reduce Flood Insurance Rates through the Community Rating System

Date: Wednesday, September 21st, 2016
Time: 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Location: Roosevelt Fire District Building (830 Violet Avenue, Hyde Park, NY)

Certificates of attendance for municipal training credit will be provided.

This workshop will introduce communities to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Community Rating System (CRS) program, including:

• the benefits of the program;

• what the CRS entails;

• how to tell if the CRS is a good fit for your community (through a baseline assessment);

• how communities can enroll in the program and resources to help your community enroll; and

• some of the flood adaptation and mitigation actions communities undertake as part of the program to increase resiliency to flooding within their communities.

Presentations will also include case studies from communities that are participating in the Community Rating System as part of their strategy to become more resilient to flooding and protect the health and safety of their community.

This workshop will also highlight the New York State Climate Smart Communities (CSC) Certification program and how actions communities can take to become certified within the CSC program can overlap with activities communities receive credit for under the Community Rating System, thus allowing communities to benefit from both programs.

Speakers will include: Bill Nechamen, NYSDEC; Cynthia Bianco, Tetra Tech; Camille Marcotte, CCEDC; Libby Zemaitis, NYSDEC Hudson River Estuary Program; Patrick Davis, Town of Middletown; and Colleen Flynn, Schoharie County.

Communities are saving tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually and reducing their flood risk by participating in the Community Rating System (CRS), a program within the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The CRS rewards communities that go beyond the minimum requirements of the NFIP, providing a discount on flood insurance premiums for a community based on their CRS class. The Community Rating System encourages communities to undertake actions which will reduce their community's vulnerability to flooding to receive points and are certified into different classes based on the number of points they receive. Discounts to residents and businesses range from 5% - 45% in the Special Flood Hazard Area, allowing communities to save tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, and improving communities’ abilities to recover from and prevent flood loss, and afford flood insurance.

The NYS Climate Smart Communities Program supports municipalities as they plan and carry out climate-friendly actions that match community goals and save taxpayer dollars. Over 170 New York municipalities have made the decision to engage their citizens in energy efficiency, renewable energy and the green economy through the ten program elements in the Climate Smart Communities Pledge. The CSC Certification program provides a framework to guide a communities climate actions while also providing recognition for their leadership. There are over 120 individual actions communities can take to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change while also and simultaneously earning points in the program.

This workshop is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided.

For more information, contact Camille Marcotte at ctm78@cornell.edu or (845) 677-8223, ext. 138.

This workshop is part of the Hudson Estuary Watershed Resiliency Project, a program of Cornell University and Cornell Cooperative Extension in partnership with the NYS Water Resource Institute and the NYS DEC Hudson River Estuary Program, with support from the NYS Environmental Protection Fund.