[StBernard] New FEMA maps detail local flood risks

[Westley Annis]

New FEMA maps detail local flood risks
by Chris Kirkham, Sheila Grissett and Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune 
Thursday February 05, 2009, 10:12 PM
After years of development, new online FEMA maps available today provide New
Orleans area residents the most detailed snapshot yet of flooding risks from
100-year hurricane storm surges and rainfall.

Because flooding risk changes constantly with ongoing levee construction,
the new flood insurance rate maps reflect the dangers posed under an
incomplete flood protection system, using data and models that reflect the
state of levee repairs through June 2007.


Across the nation, the FEMA maps are used to set flood insurance rates. The
agency requires local governments, as a condition of their residents getting
federally backed flood insurance, to adopt building codes requiring all new
construction to comply with elevations specified on the maps.


But in the New Orleans area, because of the incomplete levee work, the new
maps will not immediately affect flood insurance rates. And the Federal
Emergency Management Agency will not yet require any parish to implement new
building elevation codes, though Jefferson Parish has chosen to do so
voluntarily.


FEMA won't mandate any changes until after mid-2011, when the Army Corps of
Engineers is expected to complete levee improvements designed to protect the
region from a so-called 100-year storm, or a moderate-strength hurricane
with a 1 percent chance of hitting any given year.


Once the 100-year levees are in place, FEMA plans to issue a new set of
maps, which should indicate far less flooding risk in many areas -- and thus
allow for lower insurance and lower elevation requirements.


For that reason, none of five affected parishes -- Orleans, Jefferson, St.
Bernard, Plaquemines and St. Charles -- is likely to adopt the new maps.
Officials in St. Charles and St. Bernard have selected an alternate option
that essentially preserves the status quo, while Jefferson Parish will use
the new maps to craft new and higher elevation codes for some areas.


New Orleans and Plaquemines officials have yet to make a decision.


A Nagin administration official hinted that the city will take similar
action to suburban officials after it considers the issue at a Feb. 19 New
Orleans City Council meeting.


"The thing to remember about these maps is that there are questions about
their accuracy, " said Maggie Merrill, director of policy for Mayor Ray
Nagin. "We don't want to create a false sense of security or of panic. And
there will be substantial changes, and flood risk will be dramatically
reduced for the city when the levees are complete."


The city may adjust elevation requirements in some areas, however, as
Jefferson officials plan to do, Merrill said.


The preliminary FEMA maps, set to be posted today on a government Web site,
show vast changes in flooding risks throughout the area when compared with
the most recent set of "advisory base flood elevations, " released in 2006.


The latest maps show far less flooding risk for some east bank neighborhoods
in Orleans and Jefferson, but substantially more risk for parts of eastern
New Orleans, the Lower 9th Ward, the West Bank and St. Bernard Parish.


Residents should be able to type in individual addresses on the Web site at
www.lamappingproject.com to see the new elevations, as well older elevations
under the pre-Katrina flood maps and the advisory flood elevations set by
FEMA in 2006.


Parishes have choices


Until the levee improvements are complete, FEMA isn't requiring that the
five local parishes and their cities formally adopt the new maps.


"It's not fair to say 'OK, you've got to build to this level now and then
something completely different two years from now, ' " said FEMA spokesman
Ronnie Simpson.


Instead, the agency is allowing local governments to choose from several
alternatives that allow homeowners to continue buying flood insurance at
current premiums. Some parishes also are choosing alternatives that allow
them to delay major building code changes that would require new minimum
height requirements.


In St. Bernard and St. Charles parishes, officials have chosen to stick with
the 2006 advisory flood elevations for new construction. Officials in both
parishes expect local levee improvements will lead to major changes in the
FEMA maps expected after 2011.


Jefferson Parish took a different option, deciding to use the new maps to
guide future local construction requirements in unincorporated areas,
without formally adopting the maps. That means the parish plans to change
its own codes, requiring higher elevations for new construction or major
renovation in some low-lying areas. But flood insurance rates still won't be
affected.


Municipalities within Jefferson Parish also must make their own decisions.
FEMA officials said they've gotten word from officials in Harahan and
Westwego who plan the same action as the parish government. It remains
unclear what officials in Kenner, Gretna, Jean Lafitte and Grand Isle plan
to do.


Fluid flooding risks


In New Orleans, Merrill questioned the reasoning behind the release of new
maps, because new levees will dramatically change flood risks in different
neighborhoods across the city.


In the Lower 9th Ward, for example, a new map shows homes should be built to
8 feet above sea level. That's five feet higher than the 2006 advisory base
flood elevations, which currently guides construction in the city.


But once ongoing levee projects are completed, the resulting FEMA flood maps
likely will indicate dramatically reduced flooding risk in the Lower 9th
Ward -- and dramatically lower elevation recommendations.


In contrast, the new maps show reduction in flood risk for sections of
Lakeview. A home on Filmore Avenue, for instance, could be built at 6 feet
below sea level under the recommendations of the new maps. Under the FEMA
maps in effect before Katrina, the same home could have been built only 3.5
feet below sea level.


Going higher


In Jefferson Parish, the new maps show heightened flood risk on much of the
West Bank, including large swaths of Gretna and Westwego that were not
identified as flood plains on previous FEMA maps. So Jefferson officials now
plan to use the new maps to require higher elevation for new construction or
major renovation there.


The maps show less flooding risk in most sections of East Jefferson north of
West Metairie Avenue, including some streets near Metairie Country Club, and
in Kenner, where drainage improvements led to lower recommended flood
elevations.


The improvements probably result from about $800 million in drainage and
pumping improvement made since 1995, officials said.


Still, because of repetitive flood losses in many of those East Bank areas,
officials said they will take this opportunity to impose higher elevations
there as well.


"We have the prerogative to go higher . . . and we're going to, " said Tom
Rodrigue, Jefferson Parish flood plain manager. "But there's been no
decision yet on how much."


Staying the course


Officials in St. Bernard and St. Charles parishes have chosen to wait.


In St. Bernard, because of major improvements scheduled for flood-control
gates and floodwalls along the Chalmette Loop Levee, officials are sticking
with the advisory base flood elevations set in 2006. Based on the incomplete
levee improvements, construction in some sections of St. Bernard would have
to meet eight-foot elevation requirements if the parish chose to adopt the
new map, compared with 3 feet under the 2006 maps.


"They gave us more or less an extension of the status we're in right now, to
give us the opportunity to finish those levees, " said Parish Councilman Ray
Lauga.


The St. Charles Parish Council, which is also operating under the 2006
advisory maps, voted in January to put off adoption of the new maps until
work on the parish's east bank hurricane protection levee is complete in
2011. The move puts off small reductions in insurance premiums in many parts
of the parish's east bank, but gives west bank residents whose premiums
would skyrocket a couple years' breathing room.


. . . . . . .


Chris Kirkham can be reached at ckirkham at timespicayune.com or 504.826.3321.
Sheila Grissett can be reached at sgrissett at timespicayune.com or
504.717.7700. Mark Schleifstein can be reached at
mschleifstein at timespicayune.com or 504.826.3327. Staff writer Matt Scallan
contributed to this report.