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FEMA Tightens Flood Insurance Standards

September 19, 2005
A new federal policy could force residents in hundreds of communities nationwide to buy flood insurance and halt construction in some low-lying areas.

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Any flood plain protected by a levee will have to be certified by local officials to meet the 100-year flood standard, or the Federal Emergency Management Agency will assume the levee doesn't exist for the purposes of gauging flood-prone areas, Insurance Journal reported.

That has been FEMA's official policy for at least 15 years, but it's being enforced as the agency upgrades 90,000 flood maps in 20,000 communities nationwide over the next three years, FEMA spokesman Butch Kinerney said.

Besides the obvious example of New Orleans, the crackdown will affect hundreds of communities nationwide, including large parts of California's populous Central Valley.

Homeowners protected by inadequate levees will be required to buy flood insurance costing hundreds of dollars a year, and any new homes and businesses permitted will likely have to be elevated above expected flood levels.

Homeowners insurance covers damage from fire and wind but does not cover water damage. Homeowners in flood-prone areas must buy FEMA-backed flood insurance to be covered against flooding.

California officials said they were already working to meet the requirements. The state Reclamation Board last week approved a new policy to review all urban development proposals in flood zones.

California officials said local flood control agencies will face extensive and expensive testing of their levees. But Kinerney said many agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will merely have to conduct "a paperwork search" to prove the levee was engineered to 100-year standards.

It recently cost millions of dollars to upgrade levees to 100-year standards in Sacramento, one of the nation's most flood-prone cities. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently asked congressional representatives to seek $90 million in federal money for critical Central Valley levee repairs.

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