FEMA Flood Insurance Maps To Be Redone

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced that its new revisions to flood insurance maps had so many errors in them that they are re-drafting a new set, perhaps to come out again within six months.

This can affect any waterfront home owner - whether on Puget Sound, a lake, or river - if you want to have flood insurance. Your home may have not been in a designated flood plain, but could potentially go into one now, or even vice versa.

The issue was primarily raised by city and county officials around the country who saw some aspects of the new maps being too stringent for their development plans, and in some cases completely important topographical details were missed. So FEMA will have their contractor redo all of the maps, and they will be more involved with quality control for this second round.

Flood Insurance For Waterfront Properties

If you are concerned about the possibility of rising waters in your waterfront location near a river, lake, or even the Sound, you can obtain reasonably priced flood insurance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Most private insurers neither include this in their insurance policies nor have add-on options to do so. Almost all communities with the state of Washington are eligible under the FEMA program, however.

For more information, visit Floodsmart.gov.

FEMA Insurance For Waterfront Properties Potentially Discontinued

Interesting set of recent events from the National Marine Fisheries Service: Since development near bodies of water can adversely affect salmon population - and salmon populations are important for the web of life food chain to endangered orcas - they have determined that the federal flood insurance program currently available through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is illegal. Both salmon and orcas are protected under the Endangered Species Act.



This affects future development for any properties determined to be within flood plains, and it can also affect current owners seeking this type of ongoing insurance. In many cases, getting flood insurance in flood plains is difficult and expensive without having the FEMA program to rely upon. New development may be cost prohibitive and current owners may be left without viable insurance options.

For more information, see this article in the Seattle PI. The reporter covers the usual areas that people think of as a "flood plain": areas near rivers that can crest and flood at times of heavy flow. However, the article does not talk about the many other areas that can be considered flood plains. Even Puget Sound waterfront can be considered flood plains due to tidal/storm surges, and lake shores can rise and flood as well. The frequency of both is very low in comparison to rivers, but nonetheless official classifications and flood plain maps do exist for these areas. Both future development and existing properties along many other bodies of water than rivers could definitely be affected.

Next steps will reside with FEMA to create development requirements that will be more compatible with salmon populations, and this may allow for the resumption of the FEMA flood insurance program around the Puget Sound area. However these kinds of programs and development compromises can take quite a long time to develop, so it will be interesting to track the effects from this on local waterfront properties.

If anything, it makes existing waterfront homes more valuable since development options for new waterfront properties are further restricted. Relatively few waterfront home owners (especially on the Sound and lakes) actually purchase the FEMA insurance, so the downsides of lacking the insurance will likely be negligible except for cases where such insurance may be a requirement of a buyer obtaining financing.

We'll see what happens...

Burien Puget Sound Shoreline Properties Survey

This week engineers and surveyors will be walking the beaches of Burien home owners to produce a "Base Flood Elevation Study" for determining normal water levels and to pinpoint potential flood hazard areas. They will be taking photographs, measuring bulkheads, and surveying aspects of the shoreline, but will not trespass onto upland property without owner permission first.

Most people think of rivers, reservoirs, and lakes for flooding, but large tidal water bodies can also be considered potential flood zones when storms occur (usually if timed with high tides) that raise the water level onto surrounding properties. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) establishes maps to show base flood elevations along the shorelines, and these can affect home owners who have or want to obtain flood insurance since the rates will be at least partly based on the flooding potential as described in these maps.

The study will be completed in April and made available to all local residents after FEMA approves the results. The study will be made available at Burien City Hall, and it will also be posted on the Burien city website.

For additional information you can contact Project Planner Morgan Wilson at 253-209-4746 or Burien Building Official Lee Bailey at 206-248-5523.