Lincoln County supervisors are now taking an overdue look atpossibly joining the National Flood Insurance Program, inclusion inwhich potentially could save homeowners in flood plain areas somemoney on their insurance and could provide the county with fundingfor road and bridge repairs following a disaster.

The county is currently one of only four in the state that arenot members of the NFIP. Whether membership in the program iswarranted remains to be seen.

New maps unveiled last week during a meeting with MississippiEmergency Management Agency officials revealed that only about 9percent of Lincoln County lies in a flood plain. How manyhomeowners, whose insurance potentially could be impacted by themaps, is an unknown number at this point.

County officials are preparing a list of NFIP-related concernsto present to MEMA officials at an upcoming board meeting. Therelative small size of the flood plain area and what impact NFIPmembership could have on the rest of the county, such as what inthe way of zoning regulations may be needed, appear to be some ofthose concerns.

Whether the membership benefits would outweigh negative aspects- if any -remains to be determined, but the discussion isdefinitely one worth having. And that is what supervisors arefinally doing.