O'Brien County joins flood insurance program

O'Brien County is a new participant in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

Over the past few years, O'Brien County has been working through the steps to establish a new floodplain management program. The O'Brien County Board of Supervisors recently approved a floodplain management ordinance, which applies to all lands and development within the jurisdiction of unincorporated O'Brien County that have significant flood hazards. The Flood Insurance Rate Map for O'Brien County and Incorporated Areas, dated Dec. 17, 2020, which was prepared as part of the O'Brien County Flood Insurance Study, will be used to identify such flood hazard areas.

O'Brien County Environmental Health Specialist Jonathon Hintz will oversee the floodplain management administrator duties.

More than 650 Iowa communities currently participate in the NFIP. To join in the program, a community must adopt and enforce floodplain management ordinances meant to reduce damage from future flood events. In exchange, the NFIP makes federally-backed flood insurance available to homeowners, renters and business owners in these communities.

Community participation in the NFIP is voluntary, but there are many advantages to participating. Flood insurance is intended to provide an alternative to disaster assistance and to reduce the escalating costs of repairing damage to buildings and their contents caused by floods. Flood damage is reduced by nearly $1 billion a year nationally through communities implementing sound floodplain management requirements and property owners purchasing flood insurance.

Additionally, buildings constructed in compliance with NFIP and Iowa floodplain development standards suffer approximately 80 percent less damage annually than those not built in compliance In addition to providing flood insurance and reducing flood damages through floodplain management regulations, the NFIP identifies and maps the nation's floodplain. Mapping flood hazards areas creates broad-based awareness of flood hazards and provides the data needed for floodplain management programs and to actuarially rate new construction for flood insurance.