SF Flood Watch
Yeah, we know. It hasn’t rained in months and fires, not floods, are on your mind.
But we couldn’t help noticing that 16 months after the Guardian broke the news that San Francisco is the only city in the Bay Area that does not have a flood map, (even though its surrounded by water on three sides, and sea level is on the rise, thanks to climate change), the Board of Supervisors is deciding whether to authorize enrollment in the National Flood Insurance Program and establish a floodplain management program.
The way things stand, the City has a map of “subsidence areas,” but not much else.
Right now, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is preparing a Flood Insurance Rate Map for the City and County of SF.
That map, which should be published in early 2009, will provide flood risk information for insurance and floodplain management purposes.
It could also affect development in SF.
As the ordinance that Sup. Sean Elsbernd authored notes, “FEMA’s publication of a final FIRM for San Francisco may affect new development in San Francisco, especially renovation and reuse of finger piers.”
Elsbernd’s legislation “urges the Port of San Francisco and FEMA to develop, before that final map gets published, long-term floodplain management controls that both address any flooding hazard risks and allow the City to implement the Waterfront Land Use Plan and the Capital Plan…and achieve the goals of that Plan, including the preservation of historic piers.”
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