NFPC History
During the early 1970's, the Flood Plain
Management Services (FPMS) Program, under it's Guides, Pamphlets, and
Supporting Studies element, was pursuing several flood proofing initiatives.
Larry Flanagan, Chief FPMS in LMVD, was involved in residential flood
proofing systems and in testing flood proofing materials at the Waterways
Experiment Station (WES); Sam Cowan, Chief FPMS at SAD, was involved in
developing a flood proofing primer and in documenting the elevating of a
residence located along
Peachtree Creek in Atlanta, GA; Herm Lardieri, Chief FPMS in Pittsburgh
District, was involved in developing standards of flood proofing in
buildings and related codes and in drafting EP 1165-2-314; Flood-Proofing
Regulations; and Bob Hall, Chief FPMS in Los Angeles District, was seeking
flood proofing techniques that would prevent sheet-flow flooding of
structures in California.
As flood proofing activities continued to increase, it became evident
that some means of coordination was needed.
An Ad-hoc Committee on Residential Flood Proofing
was formed in May of 1978. It
was chaired by Larry Flanagan with Sam Cowan, Herm Lardieri, and Bob Hall as
members and Bob Plott as OCE Coordinator.
It was dedicated to residential flood proofing and its activities
were loosely coordinated.
Much of its work and its accomplishments involved completing the work
initiated by its individual members and avoiding overlap.
The ad-hoc committee met twice, once in 1978 and once in 1979.
In 1980, Bob Hall left the FPMS Program and the committee.
In 1984, Larry Flanagan left the committee and Dr.
Carl Pace was brought on board as a technical advisor for the work he and
Larry were doing on testing flood proofing materials at WES.
The committee's last effort was to acquire the materials that were
used by headquarters to publish Flood Proofing Systems & Techniques -
Examples of flood proofed structures in the
It became evident that a means of coordinating and providing direction to future flood proofing
activities under the FPMS Program was necessary.
Hence, charter members were appointed on 20 September 1985 and on 8-9
October 1985 the initial meeting
of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers National Flood Proofing Committee
(NFPC) was held at SAD to finalize a Committee charter and to elect
Committee officers.
The NFPC charter was ratified at headquarters by the Chief, Flood Plain
Management Services and Coastal Resources Branch and signed by the Chief,
Planning Division, Directorate of Civil Works, Office of the Chief of
Engineers on 12 December 1985. It subsequently was revised in 1990, 1994,
and 2006 primarily to increase the number of its members from the initial five
to seven and then to nine.
The National Nonstructural Flood Proofing Committee is excited to celebrate
25 years of service to the nation in flood risk management.