Post-Storm Flood Hazard Verification for Hurricane Lenny in St. Croix

Abstract

The Post-Storm Flood Hazard Verification process is used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to perform validation assessments of the accuracy of flood risk data and information in the published Flood Insurance Study (FIS) and depicted on the Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs). FEMA believes that mitigation of future flood losses can be achieved by publication of improved flood risk data, if the existing data are deemed to be inaccurate. For the St. Croix study in the U.S. Virgin Islands, FEMA will work with Dewberry & Davis LLC and island officials to assemble and review all studies and data dealing with the storm surge and wave effects resulting from Hurricane Lenny in 1999. This includes the review of the coastal FIRMs and FIS for the entire island of St. Croix. The project requires the comparison of the storm's damaging effects with the flood hazard designation on the FIRMs. Full consideration was given to the probabilistic nature of the FEMA modeling and the actual flood event caused by Hurricane Lenny.