Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
January 23, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People
FLOODPLAIN MAPPING:
Flood Concerns For Valley Homeowners; Thousands of valley homeowners are now finding themselves in the middle of flood hazard areas - KFSN Channel 30 (Fresno)
FLOOD INSURANCE:
Column: Insurance meets flood of reality -
FLOODPLAIN MAPPING:
Flood Concerns For Valley Homeowners; Thousands of valley homeowners are now finding themselves in the middle of flood hazard areas
KFSN Channel 30 (
By Andres Araiza
The federal government has revamped their flood maps relabeling entire communities like Laton and Riverdale, Firebaugh and Mendota as not protected from the type of flooding that occurs every 100 years.
The levees protecting those communities are weakening over time.
Hurricane Katrina forced the government to take a second look at their flood maps. People now living within the flood hazard zones may be forced to purchase more insurance.
Riverdale is a small community of more than 2,000 people. The entire area is now relabeled as a flood hazard zone even though the
Don Askew built his house in 1972 knowing flood waters have not reached here in recent memory.
"Like I say the old timers tell me it hadn't flooded in the last hundred years that they know of," says Askew.
In 2006 water from
A fear very close to Kris Brassart's heart. She lives across the street from a levee protecting her from the
Laton resident Brassart wished the government would take a proactive approach rather than rezoning her community.
"They probably need to make sure and take care of the banks ... Maintain them. There aren't that many houses out here but enough to cause a problem for the housing and families that live around here," says Brassart.
Fresno County Supervisor Henry Perea expects lenders to force their homeowners to buy flood insurance. But the county may take the expensive action of strengthening levees.
Perea says, "Long term, I believe we're going to have to start looking at the conditions of the levees that we have in those areas as well as the wisdom of allowing future construction in those areas and that is something the county controls from the land use perspective."
Most people who live in the newly rezoned areas don't know about the change. Perea says the county will soon begin notifying residents. #
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=5905640
FLOOD INSURANCE:
Column: Insurance meets flood of reality
By Michael Fitzgerald, columnist
When I first heard the feds might require Stocktonians to buy flood insurance, I thought Hurricane Katrina had knocked some sense into Uncle Sam.
The logic seems solid: Uncle Sam - taxpayers - should not pay for repetitive calamities. If the levee breaks, a bailout is fine. If the levee breaks 100 times, bailouts are nuts.
Some of the risk should be assumed by Stocktonians and other crazies living where it floods. That seems fair.
Though not entirely. After all, Uncle Sam didn't officially figure out, or "map," the nation's flood plains until 1974.
Scads of people moved onto flood plains unaware they might end up knee deep in Delta water. Those scads were had.
That aside, flood insurance sounds like an end to the era of magical thinking in the Delta. The thinking that the levees won't break, just because. Katrina made everybody face it: they'll break.
Still, I have a problem with mandatory flood insurance, not only because residents in a giant swath of
The problem is this gift to insurance companies. If somebody chooses to live near a levee, why can't he choose not to buy insurance? That's personal choice, right?
The cautious soul pays high premiums for broad coverage; the moderate pays less for modest coverage; the cheapo pays nothing.
If the levee bursts, damaging or destroying property, the cheapo bears the loss. What's wrong with that? Why should Uncle Sam protect the negligent from consequences?
Officials explain the feds have a second dog in the Delta fight: federally backed mortgages. I don't understand. The feds have some Fannie Mae-type money tied up in
Most mortgages, however, are merely federally backed. Uncle Sam guarantees the lending institution's stability. If floods cause homeowner defaults, though, banks take the hit.
So I don't see where Uncle Sam gets off insisting on flood insurance.
If
One go-round with the state's strained resources, and policies permitting urban growth into the Delta would become more rational, I'll bet.
Maybe forcing insurance on Delta residents is one way of encouraging better land-use decisions locally. Thanks ever so much for the motivation.
Lastly, how do we know insurance companies will pay if it floods? They tap-danced out of billions of payouts after the Northridge earthquake.
Maybe I just don't want to pay. I appreciate that federal policy is getting real about flood plains. It's just that reality is painfully expensive. #
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