CAPE MAY – Giving a presentation of newly installed flood mapping software, Lou Belasco informed Cape May City Council, at its Oct. 20 meeting, that “we are on our way to Class 4” in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Community Rating System (CRS).
CRS class ratings run from one to 10, with the lower ratings being the best. To move down is to move up in the flood insurance premium discounts offered within a CRS community.
According to Belasco, who’s Cape May’s tax assessor and floodplain administrator, the city earned the points necessary for Class 4 status but have three prerequisite projects that must be completed. He said he expected a spring completion point for the prerequisites, giving the city an opportunity to gain an additional discount on premiums for property owners who use the National Flood Insurance program.
Communities earn points through steps taken on flood mitigation across a series of categories of potential actions.
The new mapping software provides the city and property owners a more precise sense of a property’s FEMA flood zone location. The implementation of the software also gained the city points in the CRS process.
