SCHUMER: Federal office looking into FEMA flood map practices

Local News

June 29, 2009

Staff Reports The Niagara Gazette Mon Jun 29, 2009, 07:29 PM EDT

After discrepancies in communities across New York prompted questions about the accuracy of FEMA’s new flood map plans, the Government Accountability Office will look into the matter, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer’s office said Monday.

The agency will conduct an investigation “in about two months” into FEMA’s methodology and policies for upgrading their flood maps and designating new flood zones.

First proposed in September, FEMA’s maps added 920 properties in Wheatfield to flood-hazard areas. Residents inside these zones are required by law to purchase flood insurance that could cost more than $1,100 annually. The town’s efforts have led to the removal of roughly 600 homes from the list, leaving about 319 inside flood-hazard areas.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has granted Wheatfield and other Niagara County municipalities an additional 60 days — until July 15 — to file detailed appeals of flood plain maps that if unchanged would saddle thousands of local residents with costly insurance fees.

Schumer, along with Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), sent a letter to the GAO urging them to initiate an investigation of FEMA’s methodology in order to save homeowners from costly, mandatory and unnecessary flood insurance fees. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chairman of the Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy, which oversees flood insurance matters, later joined in support of Schumer and Bingaman’s request.

“New York homeowners and businesses have been saddled with mandatory, onerous flood insurance fees as a result of these often-severely flawed flood maps,” Schumer said. “With GAO’s commitment to examine FEMA’s methodologies and policies, we are one step closer to creating safer, more accurate flood zones and putting an end to these faulty maps that force residents and businesses across New York State and the country to pay costly, unnecessary insurance fees.”

FEMA is engaging in an overhaul of their flood maps as part of the Flood Map Modernization Initiative (FMMI). The goal of the program is to use new techniques to create more accurate maps, but the results have proven inconsistent and, at times, inaccurate, Schumer said. Significant problems stemming from the floodplain mapping programs were documented in New York, New Mexico and across the country. Several New York and New Mexico communities encountered problems with the new flood maps proposed under the FMMI.

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