City Looking for Residents in Flood Zone to Attend Meetings with State Organization

residents-in-flood-zone

Salisbury, MD — The City of Salisbury Department of Infrastructure and Development and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will be hosting an introductory session about the Army Corps’ “Silver Jackets” program in Maryland, which is designed to provide information and support to disadvantaged, flood-prone communities in Maryland.

The City is helping with outreach to community stakeholders who are directly tied to the flood-prone areas within Salisbury, who are interested in participating in two or three community meetings about flooding in the City.

“The first meeting would include a listening session and the subsequent meetings would include feedback from the USACE on possible support related to addressing concerns identified in the listening session,” Salisbury Director of Infrastructure and Development Nick Voitiuc said. “Your perspective is important to the group and is needed to help improve access to information and resources for flood risk management.”

We are looking for potential stakeholders who fall into one or more of the following categories:

  • Residents who live in flood-prone areas
  • Business owners/managers in flood-prone areas
  • Community leader(s) that are familiar with flooding problems
  • Representatives from Haitian and Hispanic communities (that live/work in flood-prone areas)
  • Representatives from overburdened or underserved communities (that live/work in flood-prone areas)

You can check to see if you are in a flood-prone area, by using this FEMA Flood Hazard Map. If you meet the criteria and you are interested in participating, please contact Jennifer Jean via email at jjean@salisbury.md for more information.

The Maryland Silver Jackets Team first convened in 2010. The team’s activities are guided by the 2016 State Hazard Mitigation Plan.

Silver Jackets teams are interagency teams that facilitate collaborative solutions to state flood risk priorities. The state-led teams bring together multiple state, federal, and sometimes tribal and local agencies to learn from one another and work together to reduce risks from floods and sometimes other natural disasters.

There are Silver Jackets teams currently in all 50 states and several US territories.