By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
The Federal Emergency Management Agency wants to expand the size of the floodplain and to require towns and cities—including yours—to pass new floodplain-management regulation ordinances. But Sen. Mark Pryor said Tuesday he’s not sure the agency has the authority to make local governments pass ordinances.
The Army Corps of Engineers is redrawing floodplain maps, and FEMA is using those maps to expand the amount of land designated as floodplain, and to require those building new homes to buy flood insurance. And FEMA is starting with Arkansas, according to Pryor.
FEMA is not the only provider of flood insurance, but it is the least expensive, Pryor said.
FEMA began sending letters to cities in Arkansas indicating they would no longer be eligible for federal-disaster assistance, and residents and businesses could not buy or renew existing flood insurance plans if the new floodplain measures were not adopted by the city by July 6.
Flood insurance, administered by FEMA, can cost Arkansas homeowners from $131 to $2,647 annually, depending on coverage and location, according to the senator. It can cost businesses up to $5,000 annually and deter economic development in communities, Pryor said.
This will affect Cabot and Beebe because of the levees around here, and Bayou Meto, Pryor said, but the next round will be around Marion in July, he said.
FEMA has sent out ordinances to cities and counties saying they must pass this or loans and developments will stop.
“It will bring everything to a halt,” Pryor said. “Cities and counties aren’t sure what they are agreeing to.”
“This is very heavy handed. They want any new development, anything anywhere to be elevated, get above floodplain when it’s already sitting behind a world-class levee—and local people pay for the levees,” the senator said.
FEMA states on its official website, “Once FEMA provides a community with the flood hazard information upon which floodplain management regulations are based, the community is required to adopt a floodplain management ordinance that meets or exceeds the minimum National Floodplain Insurance Program requirements,”
“The overriding purpose of the floodplain management regulations is to ensure that participating communities take into account flood hazards, to the extent that they are known, in all official actions relating to land management and use.”
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Pryor have proposed an amendment to the FY2010 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill.
Their amendment would establish a process where disputes between FEMA and local communities over Flood Insurance Rate Maps could be resolved by an independent arbitration panel.
The five-member panel would consist of experts in hydrology, administrative law or economic development.
FEMA has adopted the revised and expanded floodplain map for east Arkansas including West Memphis, Wynne and Jonesboro, Pryor said, but not yet for local communities.
Jacksonville, Sherwood, Cabot, Austin, Lonoke County, Pulaski County, England, Lonoke and Beebe all are participating communities dating back decades, according to FEMA, but apparently they would be required to pass new ordinances to satisfy FEMA.
“Once FEMA provides a community with the flood hazard information upon which floodplain management regulations are based, the community is required to adopt a floodplain management ordinance that meets or exceeds the minimum national floodplain program,” Pryor said.
“I’m concerned that after local people spent billions of dollars building levees, that FEMA would require people to buy flood insurance,” Pryor said.
He said there was even a “zone X” on maps representing areas that won’t flood but are close to areas that could and in which homeowners and builders would be required to buy flood insurance.
