State and FEMA offer free training for Alaska's local floodplain officials

The state and FEMA will hold a free four-day course in Anchorage Dec. 1-4 for the local officials who enforce rules on building in Alaska's flood zones.

Those rules are what make federal flood insurance available. Communities that join the National Flood Insurance Program agree to apply minimum standards to development in flood-prone areas, and in return the federal government makes flood insurance available to residents, according to the state Division of Community and Regional Affairs, which is running the course with FEMA Region 10.

The course is for officials with less than five years of floodplain management experience. It covers the program, flood maps and studies, how to administer local floodplain ordinances and how floodplain management ties to flood insurance.

In the Fairbanks North Star Borough, new federal flood maps take effect Jan. 8. FEMA counted 1,707 homes inside the borough's mapped flood zone this summer and 444 flood insurance policies covering them, roughly one in four, Alaska News reported Sept. 7.

The class is free, and the division has grant funding approval to reimburse travel and lodging for a limited number of Alaska officials who complete it. They need approval in advance. Otherwise, hotel, transportation and meals aren't covered.

Classes run Tuesday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm, at the William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery. Officials register through FEMA's online admissions portal.