New flood hazard maps now available for review

The Rome and Floyd County Floodplain Management Program released updated, digital flood hazard maps Wednesday afternoon during a public hearing at the Carnegie Building. The maps are now available for public review and comment for the next 90 days.

The maps provide data to help community planners and developers decide where and how new structures, neighborhoods and remodeling projects should be constructed.

The maps are available at www.GeorgiaDFIRM.com or in person at 607 Broad St.

Property owners can use the maps for information about their flood risk on a property-by-property basis. If the risk level for a property changes, flood insurance and building standards requirements can change as well.

The maps show the extent to which areas in Floyd County within the

Etowah River basin are at risk.

Brian Roberts, the Rome-Floyd County

floodplain manager, said the maps only cover the Etowah Basin and end at the confluence of the rivers downtown.

Very little of the downtown district is actually included the flood hazard risk area.

Haydn Blaize, floodplain program manager for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, said he hopes to get funding in the FY ’18 budget to complete the Oostanaula River basin floodplain update.

The maps replace maps that were based on data that was up to 30 years old.

“This is the first version of risk maps that we have received locally,” Roberts said. “At some point we’ll have other risks, other than flooding, as far as natural events (such as wind).”

Roberts said the new maps are being done on the basis of drainage basins rather than political boundaries.

The map panels available at Roberts’s office in the Carnegie building also details the Silver Creek and Dykes Creek areas, which flow into the Etowah.

Roberts said both Floyd County and the City of Rome intend to use the new maps, once they formally go into effect sometime after the 90-day comment period.

People with questions about the local map update efforts can call Roberts at 706-236-4407.

Doug Walker / Rome News-Tribune Brian Shoun (left) and Haydn Blaize review some documents during a public meeting in Rome Wednesday to discuss new flood hazard maps for the Etowah River Basin.