FEMA redraws flood maps, catches towns off guard

This map from FEMA shows which Iowa counties will be impacted by a project to modernize flood maps. The map also shows 16 Iowa counties that are slated for inclusion in a FEMA pilot mapping program happening this year. Click on the graphic above to download a full PDF version with a legend and additional information.

ELY — It was a cold February day when Pat and Cindy Nulty learned that their home in this town southeast of Cedar Rapids, untouched by last June’s massive flooding, was unexpectedly identified as being in a flood zone by federal authorities.

“It goes without saying that I was stunned,” Pat Nulty said. “We’ve never had any flooding problems and, as far as I know, none of our neighbors have had any either.”

The Nulty family and 50 additional property owners were notified of the Federal Emergency Management Agency flood map change by a letter from Aaron Anderson, Ely’s city administrator.

“I first learned of the change in December 2008,” Anderson explained. “I didn’t alert the residents right away, because I didn’t fully understand what the notice from FEMA meant to the residents and the town. I spent about two months trying to get more information, so that I could help the residents figure out what to do next.”

The Flood Map Modernization Program

Since 1978, FEMA has been charged with producing maps that detail geographic areas at risk for flooding. The maps, which identify areas at highest risk for flood, indicate which property owners should be required to carry flood insurance and also where communities should locate key facilities such as schools, hospitals and emergency services for disaster planning purposes.

FEMA, which is now under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, came under scrutiny by the department’s inspector general for not maintaining and updating maps. The report, filed in 2005, stated that “70 percent of the maps” were “more than 10 years old” and “hand-drawn” and “difficult to update.” Because the maps have not kept up with construction developments and local improvements, the inspector general summarized that the maps have “generally [been] rendered inaccurate and obsolete.”

The highly critical report was filed two years after FEMA embarked on a six-year program to modernize and digitize its flood mapping program. The program, which nearly all agencies and lawmakers agree is needed, is hampered by severe underfunding. The budget of $1.5 billion is less than half of what the Association of State Flood Plain Managers estimated in August 2005 was needed.

While the program has been criticized for poor management, oversight and contractor performance, most of those woes can be traced back to FEMA embarking on an unprecedented program without an adequate budget. As a consequence, the agency has used “best available” data to make flood zone designations. Unfortunately, the “best available” data is often old, out-dated and without precise topographical details.

To add to the confusion, the rules regarding what constitutes a flood zone have changed. Previously only waterways that had at least two-square-mile watershed were considered. Currently FEMA looks at waterways with a one-square-mile (640 acres) or larger watershed to make a flood zone designation.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Despite the use of questionable data to create new flood maps, the preliminary FEMA designation is considered valid unless local authorities or residents band together to disprove it.

“I understand what FEMA is attempting to do,” said Pat Nulty. “I can’t disagree with its importance, but I think they should be using the most accurate and up-to-date information possible to draw these new maps.”

Inaccurate flood maps may cause property owners to be mistakenly identified, which places significant current and future regulatory restrictions on property. In addition, property owners and local facilities erroneously omitted from flood maps could be in unknowing risk.

Once a preliminary FEMA designation has been made, local authorities have a short period of time to appeal it. Homeowners have no appeal process, but can band together to pay for a survey that could change the flood boundaries. FEMA’s technical review fee is $4,800, but homeowners would also need to have a flood study done by a licensed engineer, which typically costs several thousand dollars.

Believing that a mistake had been made in Ely, Nulty worked with the other residents in his Southbrook subdivison, city officials and the subdivision developer to present FEMA with accurate information. Developer Keith Schulte submitted a three-page bulleted list to the agency, outlining the history and surveying of Southbrook. The list included details of “significant channel improvements” that had been made to Southbrook Creek between 2000 and 2001, evidence of out-dated topographic maps showing 5-foot increments, and information on storm water easements.

“I would not have believed this could happen in this country,” Schulte wrote in correspondence with FEMA. “As a federal agency, FEMA’s emphasis should be more about accurate mapping and advising homeowners of realistic flooding potential than about generating maximum low risk flood insurance premium dollars by publishing ‘estimated’ flood maps that they know are statistically flawed.”

While Schulte’s comments on generating flood insurance premiums might seem far-fetched, the National Flood Insurance Program has been stretched thin. The 2005 claims resulting from hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma alone far surpassed the total of roughly $15 billion in claims that had been paid during the entire history of the program. One way for the government to recoup losses is to generate a larger insurance premium base.

For their part, Ely property owners met and began pooling money to fund their own engineering survey, but, before that process was complete, FEMA agreed a mistake had been made.

“Based on results of … re-evaluation of the contributing watershed drainage area, combined with discussions with a local developer pertaining to more accurate and recent topographical data, it has been decided that the new Zone A along an unnamed tributary to Hoosier Creek in the City of Ely will be removed from the preliminary map,” wrote Rick Nusz, an engineer with FEMA.

Not An Isolated Incident

FEMA is in the process of modernizing flood maps in roughly 56 Iowa counties, with 15 counties already completed. Currently, the city of Atkins, near Cedar Rapids, is investigating a new flood designation that has impacted roughly 40 property owners. In nearby Belle Plain, at least two property owners have discovered they have been placed in a flood plain.

“Benton and Linn aren’t the only counties that have been getting new flood maps — and they aren’t the only counties that will be given new maps before this process is over,” said Bill Cappuccio with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Flood Plain Development Program.

“In the case of Ely and Atkins, they were presented with flood zones that had never existed prior to the map updates. That was because the criteria changed for drainage, for when FEMA would and would not map a stream. But in other places we have people questioning how the flood plain became so large, or how it expanded into a certain area. In those cases, it most often has to do with the approximate nature of the maps.”

Communities that have detailed ground surveys completed will likely see few surprises in the re-mapping process so long as FEMA is given access to that information, according to Cappuccio.

“Right now the state of Iowa is trying to collect 2-foot interval contour maps for the entire state,” he said. “That’s being done by using light detection and ranging methods, with the end goal of having two-foot topographical maps for the state.”

Most Iowa counties, even the larger ones, don’t have topographical maps that are accurate to that degree. The Linn County maps used to make preliminary flood maps in Ely, for example, were likely 5-foot intervals or greater. The Benton County maps were at least 10-foot intervals, likely a decade or older U.S. Geological Survey maps.

“The better your topography, the better your approximation,” Cappuccio explained. “In the case of Iowa, much of the approximation that’s been done to this point was done using 1960s- and 1970s-era [U.S. Geological Survey], 10- and 20-foot interval, contour maps. … But, where there is updated information, FEMA is using it.”

While there is little counties and communities can do before FEMA releases new preliminary maps, Cappuccio encourages any individuals with questions regarding new flood designations to contact him and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

“It’s not like every community that’s going to be mapped by FEMA is saying, ‘Oh no. We are going to be mapped by FEMA and we know it’s going to be bad.’ So, you don’t want to over-react on the belief that you’re going to be subject to a map that isn’t based in reality,” he said. “There are communities that have gone through this process and realize that the maps created showed areas that have historically flooded.

“That being said, if a community believes that they have a map that is not accurate, then they need to do everything they can to come up with data that shows the inaccuracies in terms of topography and in terms of surveys and studies.”