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<br />Fort Collins' population increased from 1,376 residents in 1880 to over 100,000 in 1997. <br />The number of people and structures located in the floodplain also increased greatly, <br />Recognizing the potential for loss of life and personal property, the Fort Collins <br />Stormwater Utility utilized management tools such as outreach projects to increase public <br />awareness of the hazard and flood protection measures, establish local policy and <br />ordinances to regulate floodplain development, adopt design criteria for structures located <br />in the floodplain, implement flood preparedness and warning activities, acquire <br />floodplain land, provide informational services such as map determinations for property <br />buyers and sellers, maintain drainage systems, and maintain scientific information <br />available on local flood and erosion hazards. As a result of these activities, the potential <br />for loss of life and property has been substantially reduced. <br /> <br />In addition to entering the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in 1979, Fort <br />Collins entered into the federally-designated Community Rating System (CRS) in 1990 <br />as part of the City floodplain management program. The CRS Program provides an <br />incentive for communities to do more than just regulate construction of new buildings to <br />minimum National Flood Insurance Program standards. It gives credits (reductions) on <br />flood insurance premiums to local policy holders in return for the community's adoption <br />of more effective measures to reduce flood and erosion damages. The amount of the <br />premium credit is tied to the estimated reduction in flood and erosion damage resulting <br />from the measures that exceed the minimum NFIP standards. As of 1996, Fort Collins <br />has a CRS Class 6 rating which results in a 20% discount on flood insurance premiums. <br />The City is ranked in the top 10 communities nationally out of about 1000 communities <br />participating in the CRS. <br /> <br />It is unlikely that any of the families affected by the disaster would call the event a <br />"success story," but the scenario without the City's self-funded floodplain management <br />program and initiative in hazard identification and risk assessment must also be <br />. recognized. <br /> <br />Structures that were acquired in the Spring Creek floodplain include: 30 mobile homes in <br />an area that is an open space park, 9 residential homes, 1 retirement home that could have <br />housed more than 15, and 1 business also located in the park. The acquired structures <br />were generally located in the very high hazard areas of the Spring Creek floodplain and <br />floodway. <br /> <br />Table 3 provides estimates of the potential number of lives and dollar amount of property <br />damage that were positively affected by pre-disaster mitigation activities implemented by <br />the City of Fort Collins. <br /> <br />Table 3 <br /> <br />In addition to the acquired structures, approximately 45 residential and/or commercial <br />structures were removed from the regulatory floodplain as a result of structural flood <br />control measures. This could have resulted in an estimated additional $5,625,000 to <br />$9,000,000 in damage reduction attributable to pre-disaster mitigation, assuming worst <br /> <br />11 <br />