(BLACK PR WIRE) – City of Miami Gardens, FL – City of Miami Gardens Public Works Department Officials are taking the lead with involvement in the National Flood Insurance Program for the safety and financial benefit of residents and business owners. As part of the National Flood Insurance Program, the City can ensure new development is built to protect citizens from flooding, allow for affordable flood insurance to be obtained, make disaster assistance available to residents and businesses after disasters, and earn flood insurance discounts for residents and businesses.

As part of participation in these programs, the City has created and continually updates a Floodplain Management Plan. Within this plan is a list of drainage improvement projects the City has identified to reduce chronic flooding in the City. A yearly progress report and area analysis of flooding conditions is available at the City’s Public Works Department. Contact information is included at the end of this release.

A portion of the City’s Floodplain Management Plan is outlined below:

Miami-Dade County Local Mitigation Strategy (LMS)

The City of Miami Gardens currently uses Miami-Dade County’s LMS working group as the basis for its floodplain management plan. The LMS is a comprehensive group of community stakeholders that have identified the natural and man-made hazards that threaten our community. This group then creates mitigation projects that would minimize or eliminate those hazards. Each community in the group has a list of hazard mitigation projects they hope to implement to improve their community. Miami Gardens has included drainage improvement projects in this multi-hazard plan to reduce flooding, protect life and property, and treat pollution that is inherent in storm water runoff.

Annual Progress Report for Community Rating System (CRS)

Twice per year, the LMS group updates its list and submits the new lists to the Chairperson. It is expected that some projects may be funded through each community’s budgets, while other projects may be funded through grants that are disclosed through the LMS group. The CRS also requires that an annual progress report be submitted to the Council and the press for review. This is the subject of this Report.

This Report will also be submitted to the Chairperson of the LMS group for inclusion in the LMS plan, which is made available to the public through the County’s website; http://www.miamidade.gov/fire/mitigation.asp and through announcements of its quarterly public meetings. The Report, which includes the area analyses, is also available to the public at the Floodplain Administrator’s office. The public can obtain the original LMS plan at the above web address or through the County’s Office of Emergency Management at 305-468-5400.

For more information about the progress report or the Floodplain Management Plan, please contact Mike Gambino, CFM, City of Miami Gardens Floodplain Administrator, at (305) 622-8039 or email: mgambino@miamigardens-fl.gov.