By Chris Price
After the addition of $15 billion in flood mitigation projects across the New Orleans metropolitan region after Hurricane Katrina, updated Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood maps are reflecting the improvements’ impact on the region.
“The maps show a huge decrease in flood risk,” said Bruce Layburn, a residential developer with more than 40 years of experience and a member of the Board of Directors of the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans. “Structures are being reclassified because, generally speaking, drainage and base flood elevation improvements have been substantial.”
FEMA’s flood hazard mapping program – Risk Mapping, Assessment and Planning (MAP) – produces flood maps, formally Flood Insurance Rate Maps, as the basis for the National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP) regulations and flood insurance requirements. Flooding patterns can change frequently because of a variety of factors, including weather patterns, erosion, and new developments, so the agency uses LIDAR satellite imaging and partners with states and communities to constantly identify hazards, assess risks, and provide accurate data on weather results, pump size, and capacity to guide stakeholders in taking effective mitigation actions which result in safer and more resilient communities.
In southeast Louisiana, that has meant the introduction of the Hurricane Risk Reduction system with federally certified levee protection, improved pump systems, drainage basins, and improved attention within parish jurisdictions.
Building and insurance requirements often change when a new map is issued or an effective map is revised. That’s certainly been the case in Jefferson Parish.
At a November FEMA Flood Insurance Workshop led by Diane Howe, FEMA Region VI Risk MAP Lead, a summary of changes of 169,065 structures in the parish between 1995 and 2018 showed an increase in risk to only 13,852 structures (8 percent). Of those, 9,246 were shifted from low-risk Zone X to high-risk AE and 4,606 saw an increase in their base flood elevation (BFE). In the same period, 100,952 (60 percent) experienced a decrease in risk, including 52,748 that saw a BFE decrease and 47,112 moved from higher risk Zone A to X. No change in status came to 54,621, or 32 percent.
Jefferson’s final maps have received regulatory approval and are rate effective Feb. 2, 2018. The new maps provide benefit to the people and businesses of the parish.
“We’re seeing 40 to 50 percent of the housing stock going to a lower risk zone,” said Jefferson Parish floodplain administrator Michelle Gonzales. “The other big benefit is that for a lot of the structures that are remaining in the high risk flood zone FEMA is projecting water depths to be much lower, in some cases two feet lower than it was before. For many that means water would not enter someone’s home. It might come in their yard or up to their steps. If a structure is going to be a lower risk, there might be a lower rate.”
While lenders usually require flood insurance in order to obtain a mortgage, there is some concern within the real estate industry that people who own their homes and now are considered to have reduced risk on the maps might give up their flood coverage.
“It should be stated, restated, and never fail to be stated that just because there are new maps, new levees, drainage system improvements, everybody in our region should continue to purchase flood insurance,” Layburn said. “It’s low cost, and it’s going to get cheaper. It would be very foolish for someone not to purchase flood insurance because we are still at risk.”
Flood Map Effective Dates
Six parishes in the Greater New Orleans region have or are in the process of finalizing new FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps
Parish__________________________Effective
Orleans________________________Sept. 30, 2016
St. Bernard_____________________Dec. 21, 2017
Jefferson_______________________Feb. 2, 2018
Plaquemines____________________Levee analysis underway
St. Tammany____________________Levee analysis underway
St. Charles______________________Levee analysis underway
