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<br /> <br />As reflected in Chapter I, two principal strategies have been used in Nortb Carolina to reduce tbe vulnembil- <br />ity of housing to floods and other oamral bazards: I) hazard avoidance strategies, including acquisitioo/ <br />relocation of vulnemble stmcmres; and 2) proper~I' protection strategies, including in-place elevation. The <br />next section examines three important housing vulnerability reduction initiatives that are gaining national <br />prominence, in part because of the scale of the effort~, and the innovative practices that have been adopted: <br /> <br />. Beaufort County/Belhaven and Washington Elevation Projects <br /> <br />. Kinston-lenoir County Acquisitioo/Relocatioo Project <br /> <br />. Town of Boone Acquisitioo/Relocation Project <br /> <br />The final section examines the ~orth Carolina Permanenl Housing Initiative, an ~CEMD effort - in coopem- <br />tion with other state and private agencies - to replace homes that have been destroyed by Hurricane t'loyd <br />with affordable pennanent housing to qualified participants, <br /> <br />CASE STUDY: <br />BEAUFORT COUNTY - PROTECTING HOUSES BY <br />ELEVATION <br /> <br />/~ <br /> <br />The Town of Belhaven (population 2,244) and the City of Washington (population 9,300), were settied in the <br />late eighteenth century in tile floodplains of the Panllico Sound in Beaufort County. The rural economy is <br />based on agriculture, light manufacturing, and retail tmde, Over the past 20 years, the population and <br />economic grow1h in these two communities has been stagnant, "ith per capita incomes falling well below the <br />state average.' <br /> <br />Communities at Risk <br /> <br />The history of Belhaven and Washington has been shaped by the flood hazard, During the past 70 years, <br />moderate and severe floods have occurred on 12 occasions, Eighty percent of the City of Washington is <br />located in the mapped floodplain, while almost 90 percent of Be1haven is flood-prone, <br /> <br />Although Belhaven is 40 miles inland from the coast, it has been flooded by hurricane and tropical stonn <br />surges and nuns on six occasions from 1996 to 1999. On July 12 and 13,1996, Hurricane Bertha drove a <br />5.4-foot surge through Belhaven, Only two months laler, Hurricane Fran produced 6.8-foot floodwaters, <br />damaging 60 percent of the town's homes. Tropical Storm Josephine (October 1996) and Hurricane Bonnie <br />(August 1998) caused additional flooding in Belhaven and Washington, with storm surges reaching up to six <br />feet above the base flood elevation (BFE), <br /> <br />The storms have been costiy to these jurisdictions. In Belhaven, for example, Hurricane Fmn caused flood <br />damage to 735 of the Town's 980 residential structures, with an average of $10,000 in damages per structure <br />for a total of approximately $7,350,000, Since 1996, the ~ational Flood Insuf'.I!lce Program (~FIP) has paid <br />out repetitive flood losses of approximately $4,892,919 on 355 claims to 143 property owners, for an <br />avemge payment of $13,782." <br /> <br />Mitigation Strategy: Elevation of Flood-Prone Structures <br /> <br />Following Hurricane Fran, local officials in Washington and Belhaven concluded that the best strategy for re- <br />ducing future flood losses in these jurisdictions was to selectively elevate flood-prone structures above the BFE, <br /> <br />23 <br />