Know Your Flood Hazard

Your property may be located in an area prone to flooding. Natural disasters such as flood, fire, earthquake, tornado and windstorm affect thousands of people every year. You should know what your risks are and prepare to protect yourself, your family and community. One of the first steps to do this is to determine whether your property is located in a special flood hazard area. The maps located at the bottom of this page can help you accomplish this.

Be aware of flood hazards no matter where you live or work, but especially if you are in low-lying areas, near water, behind a levee or downstream from a dam. Even very small streams, gullies, creeks, culverts, dry streambeds or low-lying ground that appear harmless in dry weather can flood.

Flood Insurance Rate Maps

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has recently updated the coastal Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) for the Town of North Kingstown. Copies of these maps are available below or at the Planning Department, 55 Brown Street, North Kingstown. You can also access this information through a portal on the RI Emergency Management Agency (RIEMA) website.

Copies

The North Kingstown Planning Department as well as the Building Official’s office provides either paper or digital copies of these maps for the public’s review. The public can either review the FIRM on a large computer screen linked to the FIRM database or they can review the hard copies. Both options are user friendly and staff in either department are well versed at the process and assisting the public with finding properties on the maps. The index for the town is referred to and the appropriate map is found in paper or digital copy. The previous FIRMs are also available using the same process. In addition, staff can assist the public over the phone with similar inquiries and email portions of the firm as a PDF as necessary.

Using the Maps

You can access the panel Number, flood zone, FIRM date, base flood elevation, Coastal A or CBRS, or depth of BFE Staff can also access past flood or repetitive flood area information for the property. In addition, there are sensitive or wetland area maps available for review for each lot. Most of this information is obtained from the FIRM maps, however other sources of information are used as well. Elevation certificates are filed by year (both electronically or in paper files) and can be reviewed for each inquiry, the town’s internet mapping server or GIS program can be accessed for wetland information.

Community Rating System

We have also recently prepared our annual submission as part of our participation in the Community Rating System program. A copy of the packet submitted for our annual re-certification in 2018 can be obtained here: 2018 CRS packet.

If you should have any questions, please feel free to contact the Planning Department at 410-268-1571. You can also access the Flood Smart website for additional guidance on understanding the flood maps. These maps are effective as of October 2013.