The National Flood Insurance Program
New Flood Insurance Study & Floodplain Maps |
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The City of Lake Oswego has been a Participating Community of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) since 1977.
The NFIP is a Federal program enabling property owners in participating communities to purchase insurance protection against flood related property damage. Participation in the NFIP is an agreement between cities and the Federal Government that makes flood insurance available to communities that adopt and enforce floodplain management standards in Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA). The SFHA is defined as an area of land that would be inundated by a flood having a 1-percent chance of occurring in any given year (also referred to as the base flood or 100-year flood).
NFIP FAQ'S - To read FAQ’s about the NFIP, click here
Historical Background
In 1987, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) completed a Flood Insurance Study (FIS) and prepared Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) that delineated local flood hazard areas and established Base Flood Elevations (BFE) for communities proximate to water bodies subject to flooding.
More recently, FEMA has embarked on a nation-wide effort to modernize the outdated FIS and related floodplain maps. Prompted in part by the significant flooding that occurred in 1996 and 1997, the City of Lake Oswego, in partnership with Clean Water Services and several communities along the Tualatin River, participated in an expanded study of the Tualatin River drainage basin.
The results of these efforts have produced an updated FIS and associated floodplain maps. The FIS and maps take advantage of 20 years of advancements in digital mapping technology and data gathered from the 1996 and 1997 flood events and thus represent the Best Available Science (BAS) upon which new floodway and flood elevation information was developed.
The FIS and preliminary maps reflect an increase in BFE’s and floodway widths for Oswego Lake, the main canal and the interconnected bays. These increases in the BFE and floodway widths will necessitate revisions to the City’s SFHA ordinance and will affect properties located at elevations slightly higher than floodwater elevations seen during the 1996 flood event.
The maps and FIS referenced herein are currently undergoing the regulatory review/approval process that includes public presentations of the draft FIS and preliminary maps to affected county and local agencies.
Preliminary Flood Insurance Study. To view the preliminary Flood Insurance Study (FIS) for Clackamas County and Incorporated Areas, click here. To view the preliminary Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps (DFIRM) for Lake Oswego, click here.
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