Durbin Asks FEMA to Acknowledge Existence of Metro East Levees in Flood Mapping Process
Around the country, FEMA’s ‘without levee’ designation puts jobs and economic development at risk
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin helped organize a bipartisan group of Senators that asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to stop using it’s ‘without levee’ designation and acknowledge the existence of the Metro East and other levees when mapping flood plains. Last year Durbin announced that, through his efforts, FEMA chose to delay the implementation of the new flood maps for the St. Louis region until December 2011 and stressed the importance of the delay in allowing more time for property owners to understand their flood risk and for legislative action to prevent residents and businesses from facing dramatic increases in flood insurance rates.
“When American jobs are at risk, FEMA should use the methods readily available to it rather than settle for an all-or-nothing approach, thus shifting the financial burden from the federal government to local governments and their citizens,” the Senators wrote. “Just because a levee is under repair or needs to be recertified does not mean that it provides no flood protection at all or that its level of protection cannot be sufficiently modeled. Current FEMA modeling techniques allow us to more precisely reflect the level of flood protection of such structures.”
The most common FEMA modeling method used today – known as ‘without levee’ – assumes an existing levee or flood control structure that exists in physical reality does not exist for the purposes of modeling, reducing the precision of flood maps and eroding public confidence in the mapping process itself. According to Durbin and other Senators, in cases where FEMA treats a flood control structure as if it has been completely wiped off the map, they may be unnecessarily devaluing property and hurting the economies of cities, towns, counties and businesses.
“The only long-term solution is to bring the levees into a state of good repair so the region is adequately protected,” said Durbin. “In the meantime, I have and will continue to work closely with FEMA and Congressman Jerry Costello to ensure that Metro East residents and businesses are not forced to pay unreasonably high insurance premiums that will put job creation and economic development in the region at risk.”
In May, Durbin announced that FEMA agreed to offer property owners in Metro East deeply discounted insurance through the agency’s Preferred Risk Policy for two years following the effective date of a map change for owners of buildings newly shown in Special Flood Hazard Areas. The two-year discounted rate would mean that the owner of a house worth $250,000 would pay about $300 per year instead of $1,500. This administrative change – implemented without legislation – allows more time for repairing the levees while ensuring that residents and businesses are financially protected in the event of a flood.
[Text of the letter is below]
February 3, 2011
Dear Administrator Fugate,
We write to urge you to use your current authorities to discontinue the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) use of ‘without levees’ analysis to determine new Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) in cases where a final determination has not been made and an affected community objects to such analysis in favor of more precise methods of flood modeling. ‘Without levee’ modeling methods assume an existing levee or flood control structure that exists in physical reality does not exist for the purposes of modeling, reducing the precision of flood maps and eroding public confidence in the mapping process itself.
We value the efforts of the National Flood Insurance Program to accurately reflect flood risk to the American public, but we also understand the negative impact the issuance of insufficiently accurate or insufficiently precise maps can have on communities at a time of economic uncertainty across our country. In investigating the methods and processes FEMA uses to make such flood hazard determinations, we have found that FEMA knowingly assumes that certain flood control structures that do exist in physical reality do not exist in the ensuing FEMA models, primarily for the sake of simplicity.
We support FEMA’s efforts to maximize taxpayer dollars by choosing simpler, more cost effective modeling techniques when appropriate. However, in cases where FEMA treats a flood control structure as if it has been completely wiped off the map, we may be unnecessarily devaluing property and hurting the economies of cities, towns, counties and businesses. This approach is particularly troubling since FEMA has the tools at its disposal to obtain more precise data. Just because a levee is under repair or needs to be recertified does not mean that it provides no flood protection at all or that its level of protection cannot be sufficiently modeled. Current FEMA modeling techniques allow us to more precisely reflect the level of flood protection of such structures. When American jobs are at risk, FEMA should use the methods readily available to it rather than settle for an all-or-nothing approach, thus shifting the financial burden from the federal government to local governments and their citizens.
For these reasons, we request that you prohibit the use of such all-or-nothing modeling approaches when a community notifies you that it believes it has been negatively affected by ‘without levees’ modeling. Even with such a prohibition in place, we are hopeful that FEMA will continue to use simpler, more cost effective techniques when no community is harmed.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about this request.
Sincerely,