Floodplain management splits between county and cities

A floodplain question near Cape Girardeau or Jackson can change offices at the city line. Cape Girardeau County handles floodplain management for unincorporated land, while several incorporated places handle their own work. Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Allenville, Dutchtown, and Whitewater are all on that local-office side of the split.

That split shows up before a land purchase, a fill job, a new building, or a change to a structure near drainage or river ground. The county name on the address is not enough by itself.

First decide whether the parcel is inside a city or out in the unincorporated county. Then pair the FEMA map with the office that owns that local permit question. It saves a lot of wrong turns when the water line and the government line are not the same thing.