CLEARWATER, Fla. — Leaders with the City of Clearwater know that floods can be devastating to their community, which is why they teamed up with tech software company Forerunner to identify flood risks at any address in the city.
The website powered by Forerunner recently went live and is as simple to use as the click of a mouse.
Anyone can search an interactive map by clicking on individual parcels or looking up elevation certificates.
"We dodged a huge bullet with Ian," Sarah Kessler, lead environmental specialist for the City of Clearwater Public Works Department, told ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska.
"This makes it possible for people to know their average risk if they are in a flood zone or a tidal area that might have a storm surge that comes up higher."
The software is updated as new flood information is released through state, local, and federal agencies, ensuring unknown flood risks are current.
"FEMA shows what our current flood risk is, with this vulnerability assessment that we adopted, it will show future conditions of potential flooding, and that is all on our vulnerability are all on our the Forerunner website," Kessler said. "This tool allows the resident to know what risk they have. And so with knowing that risk, they can purchase the appropriate insurance."
Co-Founder and COO of Forerunner Susanna Pho told Paluska they launched in 2019 to help citizens adapt to the changes we are facing from the impacts of climate change.
"And so 100% as we're seeing things change, we're very motivated to help our government partners get ahead of that change," Pho said. "At Forerunner, we build resilience software focused on flood risk for governments across the country. So we help our partners do a bunch of things that are hard to do manually but are very important. Things like keeping track of development or floodplains, checking for compliance to local regulations to ensure people are building safely, and then communicating flood risk to residents so they can make informed decisions about things like flood insurance, for example."
Pho said they are now in 60 communities, with eight across Florida.
"The most exciting part of our work is the impact. Seeing how our partners like the City of Clearwater use a Forerunner, how it makes some really meaningful difference in how they're able to communicate to their residents, how they're able to provide service to their residents, and then how to contemplate implementing things like future flood mapping when they might not be able to otherwise; it's incredibly rewarding."