FLOOD09407

• County: Statewide
• Basin: Statewide
• Title: Sharing the Challenge: Floodplain Management into the 21st Century
• Date: 6/1/1994
• Prepared For: Administration Floodplain Management Task Force
• Prepared By: Interagency Floodplain Mmanagement Review Committee
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Community File

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THE FLOOD OF 1993

Table 1.1

Land Use and Land Cover in the Floodplain and Areal Extent of Flooding in 1993.

Land uselcover category Floodplain Use in floodplain Flood extent Use in flood
(acres) (%) (acres) extent (%)
Urban built-up 518,891 5.0 165,980 2.5
Agriculture 7,073,696 68.8 4,155,830 63.4
Water 933,085 9.1 956,983 14.6
WeUand/forested wetland, 1,435,411 13.9 882,174 13.5
Other 321,906 3.1 394; 109 6.0
Total 10,282,989 6,555,076

Source: Federal Emergency Management Agency contract with Earth Satellite Corporation, April 1994.

Note: The land use and land cover categories in the table are Anderson Level One used by the U.S. Geologic Survey (Anderson, James R., Ernest E.
Hardy, lohn T. Roach, and Richard E. Witmer, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper No. 964, 1976). The floodplain was identified using
landfonn analysis and includes areas protected by levees and areas above the elevation of the 1993 flood. The flood extent is the area flooded and
includes some ponding in upland areas not in the geomorphologic floodplain.

in the flood-affected 9-state region between 1980 and
1990.

Population characteristics. The Review Committee
found during visits to over 60 communities in the flood-
affected region that the floodplain neighborhoods and
rural subdivisions tended to be lower income
neighborhoods of the community. These neighborhoods
appear to have a higher percentage of rental properties,
more elderly residents, more young families more
people on assistance. and lower value housing. It is
common to find homes in the floodplains of these
communities that have market values of less than
$25,000 and often as low as $10,000 or $5,000.

In part these neighborhoods may be low-income because
they contain older housing and because they are
floodprone. In many of these communities these
floodplain neighborhoods are an important source of
affordable housing for low and moderate income
families. The U.S. Census data shown in Table 1.2
tend (0 confinn these observations.' The data for the
study area, however, is available only by community
and by Census Block Group. These geographic areas

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will generally include both floodplain and upland areas.
Demographic differences must be recognized and
floodplain policies must be carefully designed to prevent
inequities. j

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