Elevation, fire rates help local residents

Home and business owners in Terrebonne Parish were offered two pieces of good news this week that could protect them from fire and water concerns in the future.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded Terrebonne Parish a $3.9 million package to elevate Severe Repetitive Loss properties throughout the parish.

The FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance Program provided funding for the elevation package and targets homes that have been subject to repeated flood damage.

The FEMA grant pays 90 percent of costs associated with each approved elevation project. Applications for this grant were filed in April and awarded five months later. Elevation applications filed in 2008 and 2009 took more than a year to process and deliver.

Parish officials have already submitted elevation assistance applications for fiscal year 2012, for an additional $1.9 million with 11 properties targeted for lifting.

The parish also submitted three applications this month for approximately $5 million to address flood mitigation assistance for commercial properties.

FEMA SRL participants are required to pay 10 percent of the elevation cost, which may be addressed through increased coat of compliance benefits on their insurance policies.

A property elevation meeting for those homeowners named in the application will be scheduled and parish officials will notify those included in the grant award.

Addressing additional home protection, Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon announced that Terrebonne Parish property owners in the Bayou Cane Fire District would receive significant insurance rate reductions as of June 2011, to match an improved fire protection grade from Class 3 to Class 2.

“Your efforts to make our property safer have brought about the lowering of your fire protection grading, which resulted in lower rates on your homes and other property,” Donelon said regarding improvements with the Bayou Cane Fire District.

Donelon said that the amount of premium rate reductions would vary according to policies and carriers.

The rate reduction example he offered listed a home valued at $150,000 to post annual costs of $1,299 a year, dropping to $1,271 under the new grading.

Donelon also noted that rankings could change any time the Property Insurance Association of Louisiana makes a new survey of the district. Fire protection grading is promulgated by PIAL and approved by the insurance commissioner.

Districts are graded on a scale of 1-10 with No. 1 being the best.