The Monmouth County Board of Commissioners is proud to announce a new Monmouth County initiative that will provide assistance to municipalities that participate in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Community Rating System (CRS). The National Flood Insurance Program administers the CRS which scores towns on their effectiveness in dealing with the mitigation of flood hazard events. Earning CRS points lowers flood insurance premiums for homeowners and businesses located in special flood hazard areas.
The Division of Planning and the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Management have been exploring various ways of leveraging County resources to encourage town participation in the CRS program as well as to provide baseline data and information to towns already involved in the program. Presently, eight (8) communities participate in the CRS. We are pleased to report that six (6) additional towns have taken active steps with the County as a cooperating technical partner to explore possible participation in the CRS.
To begin the application process for a CRS classification, communities must submit a letter of interest to their FEMA Regional Office and document that they are implementing floodplain management activities that warrant at least 500 CRS credit points. The CRS Application Letter of Interest and CRS Quick Check document provide communities with a sample letter of interest and the “CRS Quick Check” tool for documenting their current activities and calculating their possible credit points. Instructions are provided within the document. These documents can be found on the CRS Resources page by clicking this link.
The Community Rating System has it’s own website. You can visit the home page by clicking here. The 2013 CRS Coordinator’s Manual can be downloaded from here. You will need Adobe Reader to view the document. Lastly, more information can be obtained at the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) website here.
