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U.S. Department of Homeland Security Region VIII Denver Federal Center, Building 710 P.O. Box 25267 Denver, CO 80225-0267 www.fema.gov April 22, 2014 The Honorable John Muhlfeld Mayor, City of Whitefish 418 E. Second Street PO Box 158 Whitefish, Montana 59937 Prelim-EAP Community Name: City of Whitefish, Flathead County, Montana Community No.: 300026 Dear Mayor Muhlfeld: We are pleased to present your community with Preliminary copies of the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) and Flood Insurance Study (FIS) report for Flathead County, Montana and Incorporated Areas for your review and comment. The enclosed FIS report for Flathead County describes the flood hazard information updates made to the FIRM and FIS report and the source information used in making the updates. We have revised only those FIRM panels with updated flood hazard information. We are sending the Preliminary copies at this time to give your community an opportunity to review them. Additionally, in an effort to assist you in circulating the information, FEMA will post digital copies of the [revised] FIRM and FIS report materials to the following Website: www.fema.gov/preliminaryfloodhazarddata/, within a week after the preliminary map date. You will be contacted to schedule a formal community coordination meeting (a “Consultation Coordination Officer [CCO]” Meeting) to discuss the revised flood hazard information, ordinance adoption, and other frequently asked questions and concerns. In the meantime, we encourage you to circulate the enclosed copies as widely as possible among elected officials, staff, and other individuals or organizations in the community that would have an interest in the FIRM and FIS report so that they will have the opportunity to review them thoroughly before the formal community coordination meeting. The review period provides community officials and citizens in the affected communities with an opportunity to identify changes or corrections to non-technical information, such as corporate limits, road names, and stream names on the FIRM or in the FIS report. Comments may be sent to: Sean McNabb, Regional Engineer for the State FEMA Region VIII Federal Center Building 710 Post Office Box 25267 Lakewood, Colorado 80225-0267 ---PAGE BREAK--- 2 www.fema.gov Additional copy to: Kevin Doyle, Regional Service Center Lead Michael Baker, Jr. Inc. 165 South Union Boulevard, Suite 200 Lakewood, Colorado 80228 Please submit comments (digital format such as shapefiles preferred) no later than 30 days from the date of this letter. All comments and changes received during this review period will be incorporated, as appropriate, before the FIRM and FIS report become effective. To assist your community in maintaining the FIRM, we have enclosed a Summary of Map Actions (SOMA) to document previous Letters of Map Change (LOMCs) Letters of Map Amendment [LOMAs], Letters of Map Revision [LOMRs]) that will be superseded when the FIRM becomes effective. Information on LOMCs is presented in the following four categories: LOMCs for which results have been included on the FIRM; LOMCs for which results could not be shown on the FIRM because of scale limitations or because the LOMC issued had determined that the lots or structures involved were outside the SFHA as shown on the FIRM; LOMCs for which results have not been included on the FIRM because the flood hazard information on which the original determinations were based is being superseded by new flood hazard information; and LOMCs issued for multiple lots or structures where the determination for one or more of the lots or structures cannot be revalidated through an administrative process like the LOMCs in Category 2 above. LOMCs in Category 2 will be revalidated through a single letter that reaffirms the validity of a previously issued LOMC; the letter will be sent to your community shortly before the effective date of the FIRM and will become effective one day after the FIRM becomes effective. For the LOMCs listed in Category 4, we will review the data previously submitted for the LOMA or LOMR request and issue a new determination for the affected properties after the FIRM becomes effective upon request. Your community should be aware that recently approved LOMCs, specifically LOMRs, may have been issued for your community. The LOMR process is dynamic and FEMA is reviewing LOMR applications regularly. To complete production of the Preliminary FIRMs which includes incorporating the effects of “mappable” LOMRs issued since the last map effective date, a specific cutoff was established. FEMA will address any approved LOMRs issued after the cutoff date when the final SOMA is distributed. If your community has concerns regarding a specific case, please submit the LOMR case number, as well as any appropriate documentation, to our FEMA Region VIII Office at the Denver Federal Center, Building 710, Post Office Box 25267, Denver, Colorado 80225-0267 before the end of the comment or appeal periods discussed below to assist us in keeping the map up to date. After the CCO Meeting, we will initiate a statutory 90-day appeal period for certain communities within Flathead County. A statutory 90-day appeal period is required when FEMA adds or modifies Base percent-annual-chance) Flood Elevations (BFEs), base flood depths, SFHAs, flood zone designations, or regulatory floodways within a community, as shown on the Preliminary FIRM. If your community is identified as requiring an appeal period, we will send you a letter approximately 2 weeks before the start of the 90-day appeal period to detail the appeal process. The letter will forward information regarding notifications to be published in the FEDERAL REGISTER and local newspaper(s) and will provide the first and second publication dates. The appeal period will start on the second publication date. Additional information concerning the 90-day appeal period will be provided during the CCO Meeting. ---PAGE BREAK--- 3 www.fema.gov After the 30-day review and appeal periods have ended and we have addressed all comments/appeals, we will initiate final preparation of the FIRM and FIS report. The new FIRM and FIS report for your community will become effective approximately 7 to 10 months later. Before the effective date, you will be notified in writing of the official FIRM and FIS report effective date and asked to adopt floodplain ordinances or modify existing ordinances as necessary that correspond with the new FIRM or FIS report. If you or other community officials have any questions regarding floodplain ordinances, you may raise them with our FEMA Regional Office or you may discuss those issues with your State NFIP Coordinator. Several months before the effective date, we will mail one set of printed copies of the finalized FIRM and FIS report and digital copies of the map and report products. Your community’s comments on the Preliminary FIRM panels and FIS report are an important part of our review process, and we will consider them carefully before we publish the FIRM and FIS report in their final form. If you have any questions regarding the Preliminary copies of the FIRM and FIS report, please contact the Consultation Coordination Officer designated for your community by telephone at (303) 235-4830. If you have general questions about mapping issues, please call our FEMA Map Information eXchange (FMIX), toll free, at (877) 336-2627 (877-FEMA MAP) or e-mail our FMIX staff at [EMAIL REDACTED]. Sincerely, Jeanine D. Petterson FEMA Region VIII Mitigation Division Director Enclosures: Preliminary FIS Report and FIRM Panels Preliminary Summary of Map Action cc: Community Map Repository David Taylor, Community Floodplain Administrator Traci Sears, State NFIP Coordinator Steve Story, State Floodplain Engineer Sean McNabb, FEMA Region VIII Risk MAP Engineering Specialist Marijo Brady, FEMA Region VIII Flood Insurance and Mitigation Specialist ---PAGE BREAK--- 4 www.fema.gov bcc: Regional Director RVIII-MT Josh Hollon Atkins Case File Dan March Respec Case File FEDD File