Graduate Student Documents Topsail Beach's Flood Mitigation Activities
Topsail Beach's welcome sign.
September 11, 2009
Greenville, NC
by Jingyuan Li and Dr. Jamie Kruse
This summer, Jingyuan Li, a coastal resources management PhD student and Center for Natural Hazards Research graduate research associate had the opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of the Community Rating System (CRS) that is a part of FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Under the CRS program, which is administered by the Insurance Services Office (ISO), communities are scored on the basis of their activities and procedures that mitigate flood risk. Flood insurance policy holders in CRS communities receive flood insurance discounts ranging from 5% to 45%.
Li worked with Jimmy Canady, the CRS coordinator and building inspector for the town of Topsail Beach. This quiet beach community is located at the southern tip of Topsail Island in North Carolina. The town of Topsail Beach has done an excellent job in flood mitigation and qualifies as a CRS Class 6 community. This qualifies its property owners for a 20% insurance discount. A CRS Class 6 rating also places Topsail Beach in the 90th percentile of the more than 1,100 CRS communities nationwide. As of March 31, 2009, there were 1,200 NFIP policies in force in this community. Topsail Beach's flood mitigation activities save policy holders more than $280,000 annually on their flood insurance premiums.
Left to right: Jingyuan Li; Christina Watkins, assistant town clerk; Steve Fostre, town manager; Stephanie Rivenbark, town clerk; Jimmy Canady, building inspector.
Li helped Topsail Beach prepare for the five-year-cycle CRS verification. During this verification process, a new application is submitted with current documentation for the flood mitigation activities claimed by the community. Communities can either maintain their classification by completing the documentation or apply for a better class by providing documentation for new or enhanced activities. Li's responsibility was to create and organize the required documentation. This included summarizing outreach projects, verifying the current status of the repetitive loss properties, and writing a progress report on the Hazard Mitigation Plan. On August 24, 2009, he worked with Mandy Todd, the ISO CRS specialist, during the onsite verification.
Li said, "During the two-month internship, I developed a very amicable working relationship with the office staff, Building Inspector Jimmy Canady, and Town Manager Steven Foster. Additionally, I was able to attend a local workshop related to a Federal re-mapping CORA (Coastal Barrier Resources Act) zone project and several public hearings on the beach nourishment project for the town of Topsail Beach. I have a new appreciation of the Coastal Community Hazard Mitigation Planning process."
Li will study the Community Rating System as part of his dissertation research under the direction of Dr. Craig Landry, associate professor of economics and associate director of the Center for Natural Hazards Research.
