Comunicado de Prensa en español
North Carolina Emergency Management is proud to announce that on May 1st, 2024, the Flood Inundation Mapping Alert Network website, also known as FIMAN, is being upgraded to a modern, more sustainable technology.
“The FIMAN site is a critical platform for North Carolinians to assess their flooding risk and impacts that may affect their communities during an event,” said Will Ray, Director of NCEM. “The upgraded system will allow for improved alerting, planning, and forecasting capabilities, ultimately providing better support to both public safety and communities across North Carolina.”
While the website URL will remain fiman.nc.gov, the old site will still be active for 90 days and users will be able to access that information at legacyfiman.nc.gov. Beginning on May 1, subscribed users are encouraged to unsubscribe from alerts on the legacy site and set up alerts using the new site’s system.
The new design is mobile friendly and features collapsible menus and tabs that are designed for streamlined functionality and will be intuitive and consistent with the existing site, so end users shouldn’t need a lot of training to navigate the website.
Users can explore the site without a login, which is only required if they want to get alerts about water levels. Subscribers receive flood alerts that they can customize for their own needs. On the new website, you can use your email address or other social logins, such as Gmail, Facebook, and Apple to log into the system, so there is no need to remember a specific FIMAN login any longer.
Regardless of registration status, users will continue to receive access to real-time data on stream elevation, rainfall and weather parameters from more than 650 gauges across North Carolina, helping prevent and reduce the loss of lives due to riverine flooding.
The system is widely used by local emergency management agencies to help inform decisions during heavy rain events, potentially saving lives, like Yancey County Emergency Managment Director Jeff Howell, who uses the information from gauges in his county to inform evacuation decisions. "The FIMAN System is a critical tool in our community that signals when emergency management must make contact with first responders to begin evacuation procedures downstream to save lives," said Howell.
The N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) commonly references FIMAN data when deciding to block roads and bridges. Lastly, the public uses this website to understand the risks to their property and community.
The gauges are managed by NCEM, local government agencies, private organizations and the U.S. Geological Survey. For more information on FIMAN, please visit fiman.nc.gov or readync.gov.