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Salem Park, in Spearfish, is shown here in June 2008 during severe flooding that swamped numerous houses in low-lying areas. The city is finishing up remapping the floodplain along Spearfish Creek. Pioneer file photo
Salem Park, in Spearfish, is shown here in June 2008 during severe flooding that swamped numerous houses in low-lying areas. The city is finishing up remapping the floodplain along Spearfish Creek. Pioneer file photo
DEADWOOD — The floodplain in Spearfish is changing. Whether homeowners are in affects floodplain insurance, so it’s definitely something residents want to be apprised of.
Kyle Mathis, Spearfish engineer and Robert Reiling, Spearfish floodplain administrator, presented the revised FEMA maps for the Spearfish Creek Floodplain Letter of Map Revision Project at the Jan. 24 Lawrence County Commission meeting.
“This has been a long process, but we’re finally at the very end of this,” said Mathis. “The county and the city joined together, wanted to get this LOMR (Letter of Map Revision) done quite a few years ago, actually, in September 2018 … to complete the Spearfish Creek remapping project.”
The area studied ranged from just south of the Winterville Bridge up to the north side of Interstate 90 near Exit 10, i.e., along Spearfish Creek from approximately 810 feet downstream of Brookview Road to approximately 2,840 feet upstream of Winterville Drive.
“So why did we decide to do this study? Accuracy is a big thing,” Mathis said. “The existing floodplain map had some existing inaccuracies in it, so we wanted to get those cleared up.”
Methods have improved since the effective map was done and city officials also wished to use additional data for estimated creek loads.
“As you get down south, down by the Spearfish Canyon Road, you can see how wildly inaccurate that floodplain is right now,” Reiling said. “You have a lot of floodplain getting removed in that … area.”
The city has completed the reading process with FEMA.
“It does have an issue date of March 22, 2023, so it’s not effective yet,” Mathis said. “It is online for everyone to view. We are in the public comment period right now and we want to take the opportunity to provide public informational meetings to our communities. There are going to be a lot of residents that are affected, both positively and negatively.”
Meetings will be held 5-7 p.m. Feb. 13; and 1-3 p.m. Feb. 14 at Spearfish City Hall.
“We’ll have a general information presentation and different stations for people to go to and answer questions as best as possible, so they’re prepared for what’s coming,” Mathis said.
Mathis said that with the floodplain changes, structure mapping for homes along the creek may also change. FEMA is currently reviewing the structures to determine which ones are still representative of flood plain and which ones changed.
Preliminary maps will be available for viewing at the public meeting.
“Most of the time they get revalidated, unless there’s a major difference,” said Lawrence County Planning and Zoning Administrator Amber Vogt. “But hopefully, we’ll get revalidation letters on most of those.”
“There are some areas where the floodplain will be higher, so their house may be in it, with floodplain insurance,” Mathis said.
Mathis pointed out a few significant differences. On Old Highway 14, west of Higgins Lane, a mapped area will go off the floodplain.
“So that’s a big plus for them,” Mathis said.
Third Street and Ohio contains newly added floodplain.
“So some of these people that weren’t in the floodplain are going to be in there,” Mathis said.
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