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The National Flood Insurance Program (Nr'IP) is a federal government program that enables property owner to buy flood insurance at reasonable cost. In return. communities are required to implement floodplain management measures to protect lives and new construction Crotff future flooding. Flood insuriillct' miiy be purchased from any insurance "'lent provided the community where the property is located is participating in the program. The status of participation in the NFIP for the cowLmunities in the study (each is summarized in Table 9. 3. Prevent avoidable interruption of business and commerce; 4. Minimize victimization of unwary home and land purchasers; and 5. Facilitate the aGministration Of flood hazard iireas by establishing requirements that must be met before use or development is permitted. There are two "layers" Of coverage. the Emergency Phase and the Regular Phase. Residents Of communities participating in the Emergency Phase may purchase up to $35.00 Of coverage on each single family structure. Residents of communities participating in the Regular Phase may purchase up to an additional $150,000 for a total of $185,000 of covera'le on each single family structure. Coverage for other residential structures. for non-residential structures. and for contents is also available. The Soil Conservation Service maintains 3 manual snow survey stations and 1 automatic station in Costilla County which can be monitored in the spring for an indication of the snowmelt rUnoff potential. There are also several such stations monitorin'l snowpack in the upper Rio Grande basin. This threat is reviewed statewide each spring by the Colorado Division of Disaster Emergency Services. The rate you pay depends on the type of structure and the insurance zone it is located in. The insur..nce zones (A. AO, and X, for example) are determined by the deqree of the hazard. Table 10 provides some NFIP rate information. The Office of the State Engineer, Division of Water Resources, in cooperation with the National Weather Services Central Forecast Office {NWS-CFOl in Denver. operates a statewide flood warning system utilizing 78 stream 'laging stations that are part of the Colorado satelite_linked water resources monitoring network. There are no such gages in costilla County. but there are several such 'lages upstream of Costilla County on the Rio Grande. The NWS_C~O official in charge follows up by accessin'l the satellite monitoring system database to evaluate flow conditions for the affected watershed. Radar images may also be used to determine intensity of precipitation. After cons~ltin'l with the NWS regional office and the appropriate county sheriff or official spotters to veeify hydrologic conditions. either a flood "water" or a flood "warning" may be issued. A warnin'l medllS flooding is considered a pos6ibility and a watch means that flooding is considered imminent. For example. $90.000 of coverage for flood damage to the structure only for a single family residential structure with a basement would have an annual premic~ of $286 ($192.50 for the tirst $35.000 of coverage and $93.50 tor the additional $55,000 of coverage). Following designation and approval of this report. Costilla County may request the Federal Emergency Management Agency to use the results of this study to prepare a Flood Insurance Study for the county. Community emergency preparedness agencies can use the floodpLain delineation maps in this report to develop or improve theit emer'lency response to these watches or warnings. 5.5 Measures that Minimize Impacts I , ~, , . Measures that minimize flood impacts are directed at distributing the losses over time and over a 'lreater number or people. They do not prevent damage from occurring. Such measures include flood insurance and tax supported disaster relief in the form of low interest loans or grants. , I I _36_ -37-