National Floodplain Administrator Training Needs Assessment Survey
FEMA manages the National Flood Insurance Program which includes more than 22,600 Participating Communities. This year, FEMA’s Floodplain Management Division is conducting a survey of the nation’s Floodplain Administrators who manage local floodplains for these jurisdictions. Survey findings will inform a five-year National Floodplain Administrators Training Strategy that will be coordinated by the Floodplain Management Division.
Date: June 20, 2024 - August 30, 2024
Important Date
Event Details
FEMA has not conducted a nationwide outreach effort to all NFIP Participating Communities since information was collected for the NFIP Biennial Report in 2009.
- Only one entry can be submitted by a National Flood Insurance Program Participating Community. FEMA requests that the survey be completed by the Floodplain Administrator.
- Completing the survey is voluntary. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes to finish the survey.
- No Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is requested.
The survey questions include the following topics:
- Determine the training needs and preferences of Floodplain Administrators.
- Learn about the challenges that Floodplain Administrators face in obtaining training.
- Many of the questions seek to learn more about the capacity challenges that under-resourced local governments face and the training impacts this has on Floodplain Administrators. The lack of training resources may be a contributor to high turnover rates for these positions. This supports Objective 1.2 of FEMAs 2022-2026 Strategy to Remove Barriers to FEMA Programs through a “People First” Approach.
The Importance of Hearing from Your Community
- Undertrained Floodplain Administrators are more prone to make mistakes that exacerbate flood disasters.
- Each year, flooding is the nation’s most frequent and costly natural disaster. Well-trained and knowledgeable Floodplain Administrators save lives and prevent destruction caused by floods.
- Unfortunately, many communities have limited capacity and cannot invest the time or resources needed to train staff for this important role.
- Such communities are impacted in these ways:
- Undertrained Floodplain Administrators are more prone to make mistakes that exacerbate flood disasters.
- Floodplain Administrators who are not confident in their role are more likely to leave the position requiring local governments to find and train a new Floodplain Administrator.
- FEMA needs to hear from local governments and their staff about how training can be improved to help them protect their communities and retain existing Floodplain Administrators.
- This effort supports Objective 1.2 of FEMAs 2022-2026 Strategy to Remove Barriers to FEMA Programs through a “People First” Approach.
Floodplain Administrators can complete the survey online at www.fema.gov/FPAsurvey.
Additional Details about the Survey
- FEMA distributed this survey by email and also by U.S. Postal Service
- FEMA is requesting that the Floodplain Administrator from NFIP Participating Communities is the local jurisdiction representative that completes the survey. Only one survey will be accepted from each jurisdiction.
- There are approximately 18,000 Floodplain Administrators whose emails are listed in the Floodplain Management Division’s Community Information System (CIS). FEMA emailed the survey to the information provided in the database.
- For about 5,500 NFIP Participating Communities that do not provide an email address in the database, FEMA mailed by U.S. Postal Service a paper copy of the survey to complete.
- NFIP Participating Communities in Puerto Rico will receive the survey in Spanish. Additionally, other communities may request the survey in Spanish by submitting an email to: FEMA-FPMTraining@fema.dhs.gov.