North Carolina Residents and Emergency Planners Can Now Get real-time information and alerts about where flooding is expected to occur in rivers and streams, using a tool they can access with mobile devices.
The Flood Flood Mapping Alert Network website, which planners call FIMAN, was updated this year. It incorporates information from state and federal agencies and other sources to monitor river levels and predict when they will reach flood stage in events such as the heavy rain expected from Tropical Storm Debby.
How does FIMAN work?
Anyone can use the website. One of the 2024 updates was to eliminate the need to log in or create an account to get information.
Those who want to receive flood risk alerts need to create an account that allows for individualized text messaging, but there are There is no cost to sign up.
Some of the information used by FIMAN was already available online at US Geological Survey and the US Army Corps of Engineersbut FIMAN combines it with data from the North Carolina Department of Transportationflood warning system, local governments and some private agencies and makes it searchable by location and other categories.
Users access the website and open the state map, where 585 gauge locations fill the screen as green dots. Any dot circled in another color – orange, red or purple – indicates a location where minor, moderate or major flooding is expected.
Clicking on a gauge can provide information about what the water level is now, when and how high it is expected to peak, and how high the water is at its historic flood record. FIMAN also uses satellite mapping to show what developments may be present near streams.
Clicking the menu and search bars allows users to enter specific addresses or search by city or creek names for information about possible flooding.
What does FIMAN say about the flooding caused by Tropical Storm Debby?
As of Tuesday afternoon, FIMAN showed just two gauges where major flooding is expected as a result of the heavy rain forecasters say Debby will bring Friday night: the Black River near Tomahawk in rural Tomahawk County. Sampson, and the Lumber River in Lumberton.
According to FIMAN, moderate flooding is expected on the Neuse River in Goldsboro, the Cape Fear River in Burgaw and the Little River in Spring Lake.
