Key West, Florida, is a small island community at the southernmost point in the United States. It's famous for its historic homes, beautiful beaches, clear waters, lush foliage, and tropical climate. However, the same features that make it a top destination to visit also put it at risk of flooding and hurricanes.
Another unique feature of Key West is that 22% of the city is made up of historic structures, which have special building requirements. The building and planning department works really hard to manage all of these complexities, playing an important role in keeping the community safe and resilient.
The community is no stranger to flooding, the latest being from Hurricane Ian in 2022, which brought exceptionally high tides, also known as King Tide. With hurricane impact records dating back to the 1800s, Key West knows the important role of floodplain management in keeping residents and structures safe. Zoe Porter is the Floodplain and Community Rating System (CRS) coordinator for Key West, Florida. She works in the building department and collaborates closely with the planning department. Zoe recently partnered with Forerunner to streamline Key West’s floodplain management workflows, centralize its data, and improve resident communications.
Consolidating Data and Maps
Before Forerunner, the building department had to manage different programs and spreadsheets, and visit multiple people and places to obtain the information needed for building permits.
The department’s first task with Forerunner was to consolidate all of its flood risk data and maps into one platform.
Forerunner pulled in the existing flood maps and then layered in preliminary flood maps, custom maps of historic structures, 911 property points, substantial improvement/substantial damage (SI/SD) tracking data for each property, and repetitive loss (RL) property data.
These map layers make it easy to switch between views and find the data needed with just a few clicks – instead of spending days and weeks sifting through paperwork and tracking down the right person to ask.
“Forerunner is much more user-friendly than an online GIS [Geographic Information Systems] map or FEMA’s online maps,” Zoe noted.
Communicating to Property Owners and Increasing Awareness about Risk
More than data management, Forerunner is a crucial partner with resident communication and outreach in Key West.
Forerunner’s public flood website provides key property information to the public, empowering city residents with the information they need about flood risk to be better prepared and make more informed decisions.
Key West has done a great job promoting Forerunner’s public flood website to its residents and to local associations, such as contractors and real estate agents, to educate them on flood risk and mitigation.
For easy access, the team in Key West linked the Forerunner’s public flood website to its municipal website. The department also includes QR codes in both its annual hurricane preparedness press release and its annual mailing to residents, insurance agents, brokers, and realtors working in the special flood hazard area (SFHA) and RL areas.
Forerunner has also helped the building department tackle the challenges of communicating SI/SD to relevant property owners. In its current process, the city tracks SI/SD within a one-year period. Whenever a property hits the 40% threshold, Forerunner sends an alert for an inspection and notifies Zoe to send a letter. The letter is pre-built into Forerunner: all Zoe has to do is enter the address, and the rest of the information fills in automatically. She can print it out right away and mail it without delay. This letter informs the resident that they're nearing the threshold, and if they do any unaccounted-for work during the cumulative period, they might have to elevate their property.
"My favorite feature is the SI/SD tracker. Before Forerunner, we were just using an Excel spreadsheet. Now, I can input SI/SD data into Forerunner as I review permits. It makes tracking so much easier and the information is accessible to the public," Zoe said.
Meeting their Goals in the CRS Program
Key West is a CRS Class 5 and is working toward Class 4. With Forerunner, the city can verify Elevation Certificates for the CRS and use the Logs feature to track resident interactions.
By continuing to work with Forerunner to ensure the safety of people and property in Key West, the city will soon reach its new classification.
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