WASHINGTON -- The head of the federal flood insurance program is promising to redo flood-risk maps to take locally built levees into consideration, according to Louisiana officials who met Thursday with David Miller, the associate administrator of the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration. "He indicated to us that they will give credit to local levees, but of course we...
WASHINGTON -- The head of the federal flood insurance program is promising to redo flood-risk maps to take locally built levees into consideration, according to Louisiana officials who met Thursday with David Miller, the associate administrator of the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration.
"He indicated to us that they will give credit to local levees, but of course we don't know yet whether that's our salvation," Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet said.
A FEMA official confirmed that Miller agreed at the meeting that local levees would be incorporated into FEMA flood maps.
Claudet, part of a group of parish officials in Washington for meetings with flood insurance officials and members of Congress, said the latest FEMA flood maps only credit protection provided by federally sponsored levees. The maps give no credit for levees built with local funds and, as a result, overstate flood risks and lead to unfair increases in flood insurance premiums, Louisiana officials said.
The officials are also asking Congress to change, or at least delay, a 2012 federal law that allows for substantial increases in flood insurance premiums for homes and businesses, particularly for properties considered high risk for flooding.Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., has a proposed an amendment to a pending water resources bill, that would delay the rate increases, but it has run into problems over questions of whether it will add to the deficit and require a spending offset under current congressional budget rules.
"We're working very hard not to get into the weeds, but to take care of some budget points of order and clear the path" for the amendment, said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., one of the managers of the water resources bill and a co-sponsor of the Landrieu proposal.
Under the 2012 law FEMA is authorized to increase flood insurance premiums by up to 20 percent a year for some properties beginning in 2014. The agency can immediately raise rates up to 25 percent a year for non-primary residences, businesses and properties with repetitive claims for flood losses. Some parcels will lose federal subsidies when the property is sold, leading to steep premium increases that would make the unsellable, according to Jefferson Parish President John Young.
Landrieu said when she returns home to Louisiana the concern about potentially unaffordable flood insurance premiums is "all people are talking about."
"My amendment would simply hold off these rate increases for a year," Landrieu said. "It doesn't repeal the bill. It will just hold off these rates increases for a year, giving these members here in Congress, time and an opportunity to fix what is terribly broken."
There are 480,000 flood insurance recipients in Louisiana
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., also urged passage of the Landrieu amendment, along with another proposal by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. that suspends higher flood insurance premiums until FEMA works out a new program to help finance mitigation programs, such as raising homes, to reduce flood risks.
"Our families in New York are caught in limbo," said Schumer, noting homeowners are trying to figure out whether and how to rebuild after the devastating losses caused by Superstorm Sandy while worrying about potentially substantial increases in flood insurance premiums that might make rebuilding impractical.