Reduce flooding frequency and intensity in flood-prone areas

Much of New Cas­tle was built on swamp land before mod­ern day envi­ron­men­tal reg­u­la­tions and wet­land buffer require­ments were estab­lished. As a result, there are many areas in New Cas­tle that are prone to flood­ing despite best efforts in flood pre­ven­tion or mit­i­ga­tion. It is para­mount that the Town con­tin­ue to be vig­i­lant in imple­ment­ing flood pre­ven­tion mea­sures and inves­ti­gate inven­tive solu­tions to flood­ing. The Town’s Haz­ard Mit­i­ga­tion Plan should con­tin­ue to be used to iden­ti­fy drainage improve­ments and flood pre­ven­tion projects. The Town’s flood­plain man­age­ment ordi­nance should be strength­ened to reduce vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty to flood­ing and ero­sion. Final­ly, the Town’s flood pre­ven­tion strate­gies should be aligned with those found in the Nation­al Flood Insur­ance Pro­gram Com­mu­ni­ty Rat­ing sys­tem. For­mal par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Rat­ing Sys­tem should be con­sid­ered to ensure New Cas­tle is receiv­ing all appro­pri­ate assis­tance for flood event pre­ven­tion and recovery.