CANTON—Federally-made maps that define flood zones in Canton do not cover some areas known to flood, town Code Enforcement Officer Mike McQuade reported Wednesday.

McQuade said projections depicted on flood zone maps being drafted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) fall short of where the true limits of flood zones can be in Canton, and that a 30-day comment period to try to change them began late last month.

FEMA is beginning to wrap a project it has been leading since 2013, which has seen engineers map all waterways in St. Lawrence County aside from those in the Adirondack Park and their potential flood zones.

But McQuade says that changing weather trends and storms have demonstrated that some areas formerly known to be safe from flooding can now be subject to it, changes he says should be reflected in the updated maps.

McQuade reported that he met in February with representatives from STARR II, the engineering firm tasked by FEMA to complete the flood mapping, and was able to address some of the problems he observed during that meeting.

But he says that time constraints limited the level of detail with which he was able to address his concerns with the engineers.

“The unfortunate part was” that the meeting lasted only an hour and a half, with participants limited to 10 minutes for comments, the code enforcement officer reported.

“It should have been at least six hours,” McQuade said.
He said that the mapping work was “very well done” in that it was detailed, but had immediate concerns about the parameters of flood zones being proposed.

“Their FEMA maps are less than what happened during Debby,” referring to widespread flooding that struck Canton during the 2024 hurricane.
He continued, “So we have to go in and comment on those areas” because “We have a line on a wall that says ‘flooding to this point,’ but their mapping is less than that,” McQuade said.

“We have hard numbers that show that we had flooding in that area,”McQuade asserted, adding, “We’ve had storms. We’ve had different things happen…waters that normally never flooded now flood.”

Town Councilor Jim Smith said that residents potentially affected by their flood zone designations and any change thereof should be notified.
“I would think that if you’re going to change the designation of a piece of property then the property owner should get a hard copy” of that information,” Smith said.

He said that designations involving flood potential “certainly could affect insurance, dramatically” he added.

McQuade said that as it stands “Some properties will be taken out of the flood areas, and some properties will be put in to the flood areas.”
“People aren’t going to like that, but that’s what’s going to happen, it’s unfortunate,” the code officer said.

Town officials will be compiling a list of affected properties to notify taxpayers of the mapping process, and how they can comment on it.
“The 30 day clock started February 25,” McQuade said, referring to the comment period during which residents may air their concerns about the proposed map details.

Flood maps and information about floods can be found here.

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