In my 20-year career my focus has been on hydrology & hydraulics; the study of rainfall and runoff. I’ve been fortunate to participate in the mapping of our nation’s floodplains. Athough the NFIP was created through the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, many folks are unaware of what floodplain mapping is all about.
Common fallacies:
“My house flooded, so I can’t get flood insurance.” As long as your community participates in the NFIP, any property owner can buy flood insurance.
“My house is not in a mapped floodplain, so I can’t buy flood insurance.” See above. Any property in an NFIP community can be covered.
“I’ve never seen this creek flood. Why am I in a flood zone?” The zones are mapped for the 1% chance flood; That is, the flood which has a 1% chance of occuring in any given year (commonly called the 100-year flood).
“We had a 100-year flood last year. It will be 99 years before that happens again.” This is why I prefer the term “1% chance flood”. That 1% chance is there EVERY year. FEMA estimates that a person living in the 1% chance floodplain has a 24% chance of experiencing that flood within 30 years (average mortgage life).
How’s your knowledge of New England? Our dock has floating fingers, the restraint piling on the outer fingers must be at the Hurricane height [top of piling down to High Water Line] 17.2 feet for us.
Now I do not believe we are on a flood plain in southeastern CT, but we may be. What constitutes a flood plain and how are they monitored and administered to?
We recently had to change our flood insurance because we are within a half mile of the ocean [Long Island Sound] is that legal, and does that have anything to do with what you do?
We all learned about floodplains and “100 year floods” here in Decatur in the summer of 1990, when Stevens Creek, a mostly ignored tiny tributary of the Sangamon River that runs through the expensive suburban northwest and Far North of Decatur and the “bedroom village” of Forsyth, overflowed its banks catastrophically twice in a month, putting water in the basements of all those $200,000 homes whose backyards faced the hitherto “scenic” small creek.
To secret great rejoicing among those of us who didn’t own a $200,000 home, of course.
Anyway, those homes were all built backing onto “100 year floodplains”. You could look right on the paperwork, and there it was in black and white, “Your backyard is a 100 year floodplain for Stevens Creek”.
And the first time it happened, everybody said, “Well, it won’t happen again for 99 years then.”
And then the next thing you know, they’re getting out the sandbags–again.
It was quite traumatic. So traumatic, that the City of Decatur spent the next couple of years and umpty-ump federal and state dollars in concretely channelizing the creek all along where the houses are.
It’s not nearly as scenic now. Gee, that’s too bad.
I’m not so familiar with the modeling of the Hurricane Zones, but I can interpret the maps fairly well. There are V zones and A zones on costal areas; the V zones indicate flooding from storm surge; the A zones indicate riverine flooding (usually). 17.2 feet sounds like storm surge height to me - our standard for years on the Gulp was 13 feet (from Camille). Of course Katrina blew that away with 38 feet in some areas.
To check if you are in a flood zone: check out www.msc.fema.gov, they have flood maps which you can view on-line. On the maroon colored bar near the top of the page, choose “Product Catalog”. Next page: choose “latest available maps”. Next is a page with a succession of pull-downs. Choose Connectiuct, then choose your county & then your community. For example, I pulled up Middlesex Co. then Fenwick. Locate your property and you will see whether or not you are in a flood zone.
Alternatively, www.floodsmart.gov has a pagewhere you put in your address and it gives you your ‘approximate flood risk’. I’d rather look at my street on a map, but YMMV.
The flood plain (as per NFIP uses) is that area of the river valley taken up by floodwaters during the 1% chance flood. The hydrology is done by regression equations and the modeling is done with a 2-D computer model. The mapping is done on topographic mapping (often on the USGS quadrangle mapping).
The NFIP is monitored and administered on a local level. Although the regulations are set forth at the federal level, the Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance is adopted by the community, and they are tasked with enforcement. That’s one reason why the Certified Floodplain Manager designation is being encouraged; to become certified you must take courses in the administration of the NFIP and pass an exam. Usually it is the building inspectors who actually check new construction for adherence to the Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance. Link to a model ordinance (PDF WARNING).
If you had to change your insurance because of a relocation to the coastal area, it sounds like you are now in a coastal flooding zone. One-half mile is not very far. Katrina’s surge pushed inland 17 miles in some areas. Is it legal? If your property is mortgaged with a federal loan, it’s a Fed requirement for the property to be insured for flood. Private lenders have the prerogative to do as they choose; most, however, will also insist on it.
Being a little creek means nothing. Look at the fact it’s in a valley. Baraboo had a downpour. The flood started at the border of Devils Lake park and when the water reached the Baraboo river, it left a deposit of mud about 5 to 8 feet deep on the adjacent properties. The only place that won’t flood is the top of a high hill, then you just slide down with the soil.
What can people who are in a community that doesn’t have the option of federal flood insurance do to change it. Last year it was announced that a certain town that has residents that really wanted it, couldn’t get the insurance. How do they make the community one that participates.
In Wisconsin? The State NFIP Coordinator for Wisconsin is listed on the Association of State Floodplain Managers’ website as:
Robert Watson/ Gary Heinrichs
Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Res.
101 S. Webster
Madison, WI 53702
608-266-8039/ 608-266-3093
There’s a link to that email address under their State Coordinators page.
Folks wanting to learn how to get their community to participate can contact that person and get the discussion started. Wisconsin has a state chapter as well, with a little over 200 members. Reading their site, it looks like they welcome anyone as a member - here’s a chance to be an activist.
It’s truly a shame that some communities refuse to participate.
We’re in Maryland, about six blocks from a river that empties about a mile farther on down into the Chesapeake Bay. My husband keeps scoffing at the chance we could flood, but looking at the info you’ve provided, and seeing that we are indeed in theoretical danger of flooding. We don’t have more than a few feet elevation, and if a storm decided to march up the Bay?
Here’s a question, though: We’re renters. So if our landlord purchased flood insurance, would it cover us living in his house? Or would we have to get it for ourselves? We had it, obviously, when we owned our home in New Orleans, but I’ve never been in an area where we might need it as renters.
If your landlord has it, it probably covers the structure - not the contents. NFIP says yes, renters can get flood insurance (presumably for contents):
Sadly, engineers are not well known for ‘fun and/or exciting’.
One of the things I enjoy is developing a flood study from the ground up. It’s like putting together a puzzle. As the different portions are completed, I can tell a little bit more and a little bit more about the site - and then finally I’m plotting the Base Flood Elevations and drawing in the floodway and floodplain boundaries; and bam, there it is. I dunno about ‘exciting’ but it’s very groovy.
Another interesting thing is doing field work. Once I worked on a scour analysis project where we analyzed about 165 bridges, which included a site visit to each. I saw a lot of things, but I never saw the first snake … I think they were hiding.
When I served as the Floodplain Administrator for one of the small cities here, I was in charge of a lot of construction projects - that’s another neat thing, to watch something get built.
See post #12 ( what is it about Wisconsin?? ) The local government of the city, county, whatever votes on whether or not to join the NFIP program. If a city/county/parish/whatever is not in the program and the citizens would like for it to be, they can lobby to have it done - similar to trying to get other ordinances passed. Personally, I’d also ask for help at the Floodplain Managers’ Association; those folks are knowledgeable about implementing the program in that particular state.
Oh, but yeah, unless you have magically gotten some private flood insurance, you’re screwed.
