Provincetown Resiliency Efforts Lower Flood Insurance Premiums
Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, Woods Hole Sea Grant & the Town of Provincetown
June 22, 2021 (Barnstable, MA) – The Town of Provincetown’s advanced floodplain management efforts will earn its residents a 10 percent reduction in their flood insurance premiums. This represents an additional 5 percent savings for residents through town resiliency measures encouraged by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). To earn this discount, the Town Building Department worked closely with the County’s regional Community Rating System management program.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) oversees the NFIP, which administers a program called the Community Rating System (CRS). The CRS is a voluntary incentive program that recognizes and encourages community floodplain management activities by towns that exceed minimum NFIP requirements. As a member of the Community Rating System, Provincetown is within an elite group of 22 Massachusetts communities that have received this recognition. On the Cape, nine communities participate in the CRS. (For a list of the other communities and their discounts, visit https://www.capecodextension.org/coastalprocesses/coastalflooding/#CRS.)
With the additional steps taken by Provincetown to protect citizens and increase resiliency, FEMA advanced the Town’s standing in the Community Rating System to a Class 8, effective May 1, 2021. The Class 8 rating qualifies eligible National Flood Insurance Program policyholders in the Town to receive a 10% discount on their annual flood insurance premiums for an average of $220 in annual savings. Savings are reflected directly on flood insurance bills. In total, participation in the program accounts for a community-wide savings of over $115,000 annually for citizens of Provincetown.
Shannon Hulst, the regional CRS Coordinator for Barnstable County, says, “A Class 8 rating takes a lot of hard work and dedication on the part of community staff. Provincetown residents should be proud of the work their Town has done and continues to do to protect them from flooding and increase flood insurance savings.”
Barnstable County’s regional Community Rating System management program with Cape Cod Cooperative Extension/Woods Hole Sea Grant helps towns get into and stay in the CRS. Since the program’s creation in 2015, the County has helped save Cape Cod policyholders in nine different towns over $1.8 million in flood insurance costs. For more on the regional program, visit https://www.capecodextension.org/coastalprocesses/coastalflooding/ and https://seagrant.whoi.edu/regional-topics/storms-erosion-flooding/community-rating-system/.
For information about flood insurance, property owners should contact their insurance agent, visit floodsmart.gov, or call the NFIP’s toll-free information line at 800-427-4661.
To learn more about the CRS, visit https://www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program-community-rating-system.
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ABOUT CAPE COD COOPERATIVE EXTENSION
Cape Cod Cooperative Extension is the education department for Barnstable County. Educational programs focus on agriculture, marine resources, horticulture, aquaculture, natural resources, water quality, recycling, household hazardous waste, nutrition, food safety, youth development and environmental education issues facing the county. Extension programs are conducted in Barnstable County in cooperation with the staff at the University of Massachusetts, and The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution–Sea Grant program. www.capecodextension.org
ABOUT WOODS HOLE SEA GRANT
The Woods Hole Sea Grant program, based at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), supports research, education, and extension projects that encourage environmental stewardship, long-term economic development, and responsible use of the nation’s coastal and ocean resources. It is part of the National Sea Grant College Program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a network of 34 individual programs located in each of the coastal and Great Lakes states.
