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PREFACE PURPOSE The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB), the Colorado Office of Emergency Management (OEM) and other organizations have assisted more disaster areas in the past two years than they have altogether in the past 20. Since their efforts are vitally important, many creative, problem-solving solutions have come to the table to better alleviate the distress for those affected by flood hazards. This document is the Local Pre-Disaster Flood Hazard Mitigation Plan for the Town of Georgetown, Colorado. It was discussed and approved in draft form at the Town Board ~f Selectmen Meeting on September 22,1998. This plan will be submitted to CWCB and FEMA In final form on or before September 30, 1998. The goal is to then take the activities proposed and proceed to the next phase. The Project Phase. Clear Creek County OEM will make a grant application for project funds through FMAP and other funding sources, in hopes for assistance in implementing the measures to make Georgetown a flood disaster resistant community. Hit with flooding disasters last year, Colorado response teams came face to face with the real issues of flood hazai-d on a grand scale rather than just local area high waters. The, impact to a college community was devastating, while other areas not usually hit by floods experienced a lesser degree of damage, but the frustration and lack of financial assistance leaves a smaller community at odds against "Mother Nature." ACKNOWLEDGMENT Mitigation means learning from the past, using preventative measures for the future, and implementing a system of evaluation to modify the measures as hazard needs change. FEMA's newly created Flood Mitigation Assistance Program (FMAP) will go a long way to accomplish those requirements. The program fund will allow communities to develop Local Pre-Disaster Flood Hazard Mitigation Plans. The plans will contain strategies, approaches, actions and recommendations for projects which, when implemented, will mitigate and reduce future flood losses. Long range planning is one of the key actions to break the disaster-recovery-disaster cycle. It will insure that, once a Colorado community has implemented pre-disaster flood mitigation measures, it will be able to withstand the kind of economic distress, endangerment to life and environmental degradation that we have seen all too often in the past. Parts of the information contained in this document were excerpted from the Flood Hazard Mitigation Planning Manual, Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, 1995. The draft model plan was brought to us by the Colorado Water Conservation Board staff, who received their training during a presentation in a classroom setting by Mr. French Wetmore at the 19th Annual Conference of the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) in Portland, Maine on May 26, 1995. Participation in the ASFPM provides other states and agencies the opportunity to cross-share information and data to achieve the ultimate goal of ~ood haz~d reduction in the United States. We gratefully acknowledge the use of the document In prepanng Georgetown's Local Pre-Disaster Flood Hazard Mitigation Plan and the benefits afforded this community for years to come. FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT The implementation of a comprehensive program of floodplain management is necessary for the "long term" success of a community's flood mitigation strategies. Floodplain management is a continuous process of making decisions about whether and how floodplain lands and waters will be used. It encompasses: I) the choices made by owners of floodplain homes and businesses; 2) decisions made by officials at all levels of government; 3) development plans made by owners of commercial floodprone land; and 4) the judgements of farmers with pastures and fields stretching to the riverbanks. The success of floodplain management at any scale depends on the collection and utilization of engineering and administrative information. The process of floodplain management draws upon the issues and safety regarding the uses of floodplain land. Effective management requires prompt but careful decisions that are compatible with the risks and resources inherent to floodplains. If such decisions are not made, unwise development or other uses will occur that will prove unacceptably costly in the long run. Floodplain management promotes activities on floodplain land that are compatible with the risks to human life and property from floods with the risks to the floodplain's natural functions posed by the human activities. -1- -2-