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Saturday, July 07, 2018

Department of Planning and Zoning Has Updated Its "Floodplain" Page

SALISBURY, MD - In recognition of "National Insurance Awareness Day" celebrated on June 28th, the Wicomico County Department of Planning and Zoning has updated its "Floodplain" page to include newly released publications from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

"We are getting a head start on the upcoming hurricane season by providing the citizens of Wicomico County with useful information to help them prepare for potential flooding events," stated Bob Culver, County Executive. "We also want to encourage every homeowner to consider obtaining flood insurance - even if your home is located outside of a mapped floodplain," he added.

FEMA reports that more than 20 percent of flood insurance claims come from properties outside of mapped flood zones. Wicomico County qualifies for participation in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) by maintaining strict building standards. NFIP communities are provided discounts on flood insurance premiums.

Recent estimates provided by FEMA claim that one inch of water in a home can cost more than $25,000 in damage. A newly released publication provides guidance on low-cost projects that homeowners can do themselves. "Protect Your Home From Flooding" is now available on the County's Department of Planning and Zoning web page at: http://www.wicomicocounty.org/540/Floodplain or by contacting the Planning and Zoning Department at 410-548-4810.

Additional publications to help homeowners prepare for flooding events, including caring for pets during a flood, are also available on-line or at the Department of Planning and Zoning located at 125 N. Division Street in downtown Salisbury. Homeowners can also visit the department for individual guidance with improvements to prevent flooding.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Flooding is real I get that. However, in Wicomico there seems to be more flooding in the past few years. I am not an expert, but some of this flooding is due to landowners modifying their land (for let say crop yeild ect) and then the county and state are not keeping ditches clear. This can easily be fixed. If land ownners want to alter land they need to work with the county and state to make sure the drainage will work.

Anonymous said...

Farmers are also selling their land that floods to developers to build housing developments on. This is what happened to us. We bought a brand new home in Parsonsburg that ended up flooding 5 times in the first 2 years of ownership. We ended up with a home that could not be sold, bankrupt and had to walk away from the home. The sad thing is that this builder is still building houses that will flood and Wicomico did nothing to stop this. We have decided to move out of the area because of all of this. We went from having a nice savings account, beautiful new home, and perfect credit to being bankrupt.

Anonymous said...

1:43 - You are partially right. What has really happened though is that the Storm Water Management - (State mandated retention ponds) - have wreaked havoc on Wicomico's environment. It has caused massive amounts of water to be diverted to our counties streams, tributaries, that would have otherwise been absorbed by the 'natural habitat'.

You aren't going to find any of this being covered though - because of all of the fake news and for those politicians that were responsible for passing legislation for the local authorities insisting on adopting Storm Water management plans. The projects that have created the most adverse flood conditions to our county's environment is none other than the Government entities themselves: ie - Wor Wic, SU, Perdue Stadium, and a plethora of other governmental buildings.

Anonymous said...

Environmentalists control this state and there isn't any development going on here.

Anonymous said...

Is this update to the website the County's response to citizen complaints about flooding during the Spring listening sessions that they had? Thanks! I never could have found these links on my own!

Anonymous said...

Storm Drains aren't large enough to hold the
torrents of rain we've had in the past 3 yrs.

Think the Cty is going to admit that , heck
No, that would cost them millions of dollars.
People should sue them for not fixing the problem!