Public invited to discuss community flood resiliency efforts

Published 1:17 pm Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Beaufort County and several of its municipalities will soon continue their efforts to enhance community resilience to flooding through the N.C. Resilient Coastal Communities Program.

The program “facilitates a community-driven process for setting coastal resilience goals, assessing existing and needed local capacity, and identifying and prioritizing projects to enhance community resilience to coastal hazards,” according to a press release. The state legislature and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation fund the program.

In fall 2021, Beaufort County and three municipalities — Aurora, Belhaven and Washington — asked for public input on issues, needs and opportunities related to flooding via a public survey. Those entities are now set to have open houses where they’ll gather input on community priorities.

The public can drop into the meetings at any time during meeting hours. No formal presentations will be given.

Here’s where and when the meetings will take place. Note that the virtual open house option listed under Beaufort County is for the municipalities as well.

Beaufort County

In-person: Thursday, Feb. 17, from 4 – 6:30 p.m. in the multipurpose room of Building 10 on Beaufort County Community College’s campus.

Virtual open house: Monday, Feb. 21, from 6 – 7:30 p.m. Go to www.zoom.us, click Join A Meeting, Meeting ID: 646 627 9358, Meeting Passcode: 123, Call-In Option: +1 301 715 859.

Aurora

Monday, Feb. 14, from 4 – 6 p.m. at Aurora Community Center.

Belhaven

Wednesday, Feb. 16, from 4 – 6 p.m. at Belhaven Civic Center.

Washington

Tuesday, Feb. 15, from 4 – 6:30 p.m. at the Washington Civic Center ballroom.

An online storymap with more information about Beaufort County’s community resiliency efforts will be available from Feb. 11 – Feb. 28 at BeaufortCountyResiliency.org,