Apprehension grows over flood plans

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Pending changes in the nation’s flood insurance program are expected to hit hard in local communities, where rates in some cases are likely to skyrocket.

But government officials say they are still working on solutions to lessen the impact of change that could come late this year, even if they can’t deflect the blow altogether.


“It is going to greatly impact the people of Terrebonne Parish,” said Planning and Zoning Director Pat Gordon. “The new law will remove the subsidies from their insurance. They will lose their subsidies and they will be assessed, added 25 percent more.”


The problem as stated by Gordon as well as officials in Lafourche Parish is that premiums in some areas are expected to take that jump not just once, but to see it repeated each year until the program is operating at a level consistent with normal insurance risks.

“Now they may jump up to $10,000 per year instead of $2,000 or $3,000,” Gordon said.


The change also eliminates grandfathering, the practice whereby someone who was in a high-risk zone was allowed to continue paying low premiums.


Cyrus Pitre of Chauvin owns both a home and a business – an auto repair shop – on La. Highway 56. While the specifics on the change are complex, he said, he is certain that a radical change in new rates would mean radical change for him.

“I wouldn’t be able to afford it,” he said “It’s very important to have the insurance if there is a flood that would destroy the house. But what can you do.”


Parish Councilman Dirk Guidry is aware first-hand of the damage floods can bring and the importance of affordable flood insurance. People in his district are nearing panic over the potential of major rate increases.


“It’s a major concern right now,” Guidry said. “Most of the people I talk to about it say they won’t be able to afford it, they are going to try their luck of do without it. For many it’s either eat or get the insurance, especially with the older people.”

Guidry said he would like to see the Terrebonne Parish Council take matters straight to the top, and write to President Barack Obama.


“It’s going to kill the young people down here,” Guidry said. “They are not going to be able to buy houses when there is an $800 house note and the insurance note is $1,000. The people are going to go ballistic.”

The outlook for future flood insurance is not totally bleak for all policyholders.

Rate changes came about as a result of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2012, a congressional action that reauthorized the flood insurance program. Rate changes are the tip of the Biggert-Waters iceberg, however. How the overall changes in the program may affect individual homeowners remains to be seen.

That’s because elevation maps, which are used along with other factors to determine the risk of flooding to a home or business, are still being developed for Terrebonne and Lafourche.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency came to the parishes with maps that local officials said were onerous and not truly reflective of the region’s flood potentials. New levees and floodgates in Terrebonne Parish, changes in flood control systems in Lafourche and other factors, officials said, need to be taken into account.

Terrebonne Parish Manager Al Levron said his office appealed the FEMA maps on that basis a year ago and nothing has been heard from the agency since then.

The maps are important because an individual home’s potential for risk, as determined by them, could mean that home might be placed in a “preferred” category, lessening the impact of rates. In addition, many homes still qualify for mitigation, such as raising the structure.

That can be accomplished with a 25/75 split between the homeowner and the government, and might result in no significant cost impact in terms of flood insurance premiums.

“We haven’t heard anything from them,” Gordon said. “They are still reviewing our appeal, it has been almost a year. We had a preliminary map after the initial appeal but then Al Levron submitted information on a number of levee projects and road projects, new pump stations, and now they are reviewing this. I am hoping they will reduce our basic flood elevations.”

Money for mitigation – such as raising homes – is still available through grants administered through the parishes.

The problem is that without a response from FEMA regarding the map appeal, there is no way to truly know how high homeowners should elevate, if at all.

“That’s the $64,000 question,” Levron said. “I live in an area that is not a flood zone so I pay the lowest premium possible, the preferred rate. If the maps stay the way they are it is likely my rate will change just a little bit. A guy who is below base flood elevation and he is paying $1,000 in round numbers for insurance, with the risk actuary that would be raised at 25 percent per year. Here is where the wild card is for us. Parishes that have final maps published you can quickly compare what FEMA elevation needs to be, they can say ‘Here is the difference in the risk and the rate.’ Since we are still negotiating with FEMA on the maps we just don’t know.”