FEMA Asked to Reconsider Minot Flood Risk Map

The Souris River Joint Board has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to review the preliminary flood risk map for Minot.

Board members said the failure to consider the operations of Canadian dams in the development of the flood risk map has wrongly placed at least 1,000 structures in the 100-year flood plain.

The preliminary map has about 3,200 properties in the flood plain, compared to the current 80 parcels.

Flood risk maps are created by the state through the State Water Commission. FEMA verifies and decides whether to approve the maps.

FEMA administrator Brock Long told the Minot Daily News the agency is open to reviewing the map but that it’ll need guarantees on operational policies to be able to consider water held back by the dams as a mitigating factor in flood risk.

“It has to be more than an agreement, in my opinion,” Long said. “There has to be an operational process that we can believe in and understand, and there has to be somebody we can pick up the phone and call.”

The operations of the dams follow a plan that’s part of an international agreement overseen by a board with both Canadian and U.S. representatives.

Topics Flood FEMA