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<br />B. Present Methods of Compiling Flood Damage Estimates
<br />The staff of NWS-IDC willingly answered our questions about methods used in recent
<br />years to collect and compile damage estimates, However, none had direct experience with the
<br />methods used before 1989, They provided to us copies of their flood damage data sets and made
<br />available all of the materials in their historical archives, including publications of federal
<br />agencies, files containing flood reports submitted monthly by the NWS field offices, and notes
<br />made by former staff who compiled the data into annual reports,
<br />
<br />The NWS operates approximately 120 field offices distributed across the U.S, and its
<br />territories, Each office provides weather and hydrological forecasts for an assigned area and
<br />issues warnings during severe weather and flood events, Most offices have a Warning
<br />Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) who issues storm and flood warnings in the forecast area,
<br />The WCM is also responsible for submitting monthly reports on severe storm events to the
<br />NWS, including deaths and estimates of damage to property and crops, The descriptions, deaths,
<br />and damage estimates are published monthly in Storm Data,
<br />
<br />Compiling estimates of storm damage is a minor part of the job, receiving little attention
<br />from many WCMs (Frank Richards, NWS-IDC, personal communication, 2/16/00), Field
<br />offices differ greatly in the regularity and completeness of their damage reports, Their staff
<br />obtain damage estimates from numerous local sources, and cannot always know how those
<br />estimates were made and what is included,
<br />
<br />A meteorologist at NWS-IDC is responsible for collecting flood damage reports from all of
<br />the field offices and checking the damage estimates, NWS-IDC staff are in a good position to
<br />track damaging floods because they receive the first flood and flash flood warnings issued by all
<br />of the field offices and produce the daily National Flood Summary (NWS-IDC website under
<br />Current Flooding). They also receive monthly summaries of significant hydrological events
<br />from the field offices, Hence the meteorologist is aware of most flooding events as they occur,
<br />receives narrative descriptions monthly, and can check whether estimates are received for all
<br />severe floods.
<br />
<br />Floods that appear to involve less than $50,000 in damage are entered into the database but
<br />generally not checked for accuracy or completeness, When it appears that damage could exceed
<br />$50,000, and estimates are missing or seem unreasonable based on descriptions of weather and
<br />flood conditions, other reports (e,g, news accounts), and prior experience in compiling damage
<br />records, the meteorologist contacts the field office and asks for more information and better
<br />estimates, In practice, it is often difficult to clearly separate the estimates of damage to property
<br />and crops, Therefore, in recent years, NWS-IDC has combined the estimates of property and
<br />crop damage into a single damage estimate,
<br />
<br />In most cases, damage information is collected within three months after the flood event. It
<br />is most difficult to get the information for large floods because attention in the field office is
<br />focused on other more urgent tasks related to the event.
<br />
<br />Historically, field office personnel obtained their damage estimates primarily from
<br />newspapers (Paul Polger, NWS, pers, comm" 2/16/00), Today, however, they obtain estimates
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