Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 209 / Friday, October 27, 2000 / Notices 64441

1The Special Flood Hazard Area is an area of

land that would be inundated by a flood having a

one percent chance of occurring in any given year

(also referred to as the base or 100-year flood).

Flood insurance is required for insurable structures

within the SFHA to protect Federal financial

investments and assistance used for acquisition

and/or construction purposes within communities

participating in the NFIP.

Federal Communications Commission.

Magalie Roman Salas,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 00–27674 Filed 10–26–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6712–01–U

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS

COMMISSION

[Report No. 2447]

Petitions for Reconsideration and

Clarification of Action in Rulemaking

Proceedings

October 19, 2000.

Petitions for Reconsideration and

Clarification have been filed in the

Commission’s rulemaking proceedings

listed in this Public Notice and

published pursuant to 47 CFR Section

1.429(e). The full text of this document

is available for viewing and copying in

Room CY–A257, 445 12th Street, S.W.,

Washington, D.C. or may be purchased

from the Commission’s copy contractor,

ITS, Inc. (202) 857–3800. Oppositions to

these petitions must be filed by

(November 13, 2000. See Section

1.4(b)(1) of the Commission’s rules (47

CFR 1.4(b)(1)). Replies to an opposition

must be filed within 10 days after the

time for filing oppositions have expired.

Subject: Redesignation of the 17.7–

19.7 GHz Frequency Band, Blanket

Licensing of Satellite Earth Stations in

the 17.7–20.2 GHz and 27.5–30.0 GHz

Frequency Bands, and the Allocation of

Additional Spectrum in the 17.3–17.8

GHz and 24.75–25.25 GHz Frequency

Bands for Broadcast Satellite-Service

Use (IB Docket No. 98–172, RM–9005,

RM–9118).

Number of Petitions Filed: 4.

Subject: Implementation of Video

Description of Video Programming (MM

Docket No. 99–339).

Number of Petitions Filed: 8.

Federal Communications Commission.

Magalie Roman Salas,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 00–27586 Filed 10–26–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6712–01–M

FEDERAL EMERGENCY

MANAGEMENT AGENCY

National Flood Insurance Program;

Desktop Rating of Flood Insurance

Policies

AGENCY: Federal Emergency

Management Agency (FEMA).

ACTION: Notice of forum with request for

ideas and participants.

SUMMARY: We (FEMA) will hold a forum

on the feasibility of identifying

alternative methods for obtaining

necessary risk and elevation information

to rate flood insurance policies. The

goal of the forum is to foster the

development of a desktop system that

supports the actuarial rating of a flood

insurance policy and the floodplain

management requirements of the

National Flood Insurance Program. We

seek a solution that makes the risk, base

flood elevation and lowest floor

elevation data necessary to rate a flood

insurance policy available to agents at

their desks.

DATES: We will hold the forum on

December 13, 2000.

Please send written responses to the

ideas and questions that we pose by

November 27, 2000.

ADDRESSES: We will hold the forum in

the Horizon Ballroom of the

International Trade Center, Ronald

Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania

Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20004.

Please send written responses to

Edward Pasterick at the address

immediately below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Edward Pasterick, Federal Insurance

Administration, Federal Emergency

Management Agency, 500 C Street, SW.,

Washington DC 20472, (202) 646–3443,

or (email) edward.pasterick@fema.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

The National Flood Insurance

Program (NFIP) provides coverage

against flood damage to property owners

in communities that agree to adopt and

enforce regulations designed to ensure

safer future construction of buildings in

high-risk flood zones. The provision of

insurance, the regulation of the

floodplain and the enforcement of the

mandatory purchase requirements

depend on three things:

• Flood risk information or certain

key information about the nature and

extent of the flood risk in a given area,

• Elevation of the structure, and

• Structural characteristics, such as

the number of floors and occupancy

type.

Flood Risk Information. The Federal

Emergency Management Agency

(FEMA) provides flood-zone

information in the form of a Flood

Insurance Study and Flood Insurance

Rate Map (FIRM). The FIRM outlines

the degree and extent of the flood risk

in a given jurisdiction and serves as the

guiding document for communities in

the regulation of floodplain construction

and for lenders in enforcing the

mandatory purchase requirements. It

also serves insurance companies and

agents as the source of needed risk

information for writing and rating

applications for flood insurance under

the NFIP. The primary flood risk

characteristics shown on the FIRMs are

the areas inundated by the one percent

annual probability flood and the

elevation relative to the mean sea level

to which the floodwaters will rise. The

latter is the Base Flood Elevation (BFE).

Elevation of the Structure. Individual

property owners, through licensed

surveyors and engineers, provide the

elevation information needed to guide

floodplain construction and to rate

insurance applications. The elevation

certificate contains this information,

which shows the elevation relative to

the mean sea level of the lowest floor of

a structure or lowest floor elevation

(LFE). The community must ensure that

the LFE of a new structure built in the

Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) 1

after the effective date of a FIRM is at

or above the BFE shown on the FIRM.

The insurance agent writing an

application for flood insurance on the

structure must calculate the difference

between the BFE and the LFE to

determine the proper rate for coverage.

As a condition of its participation in the

NFIP the community must maintain this

elevation information in its records.

Structural Characteristics. The

insurance agent obtains the relevant

structural characteristics from the

insured. For example, the property

owner can supply information about the

number of floors, occupancy type, date

of construction, etc. to the agent.

Several factors currently affect the

ease of writing flood insurance:

• Access to flood risk information is

more difficult for insurance agents than

the risk information other lines of

property insurance need. Since the

flood zone and BFE needed for rating

are on the community’s FIRM, agents

must maintain a paper copy of every

effective FIRM for the communities in

which they write policies. Locating a

property on the paper copy of the FIRM

has been a problem for agents from the

outset of the NFIP, a problem that we

have not diminished substantially over

the years. Flood Zone Determination

(FZD) companies and some Write Your

Own (WYO) companies digitize much of

the information on the FIRMs and now

provide this information to some agents.

However, zone information is far from