Cities Lobby Rep. Anderson to Fight Costly Flood Plan

Even in this time of drought, Southeast and Long Beach officials accept the idea that a “100-year flood” could wash over the concrete banks of the Los Angeles and Rio Hondo rivers and cause millions of dollars in damage to their cities.

But they say they cannot accept a federal agency’s plan that would require many new buildings to be elevated and insured against catastrophic flood at considerable expense.

The officials met Monday with Rep. Glenn M. Anderson (D-San Pedro) to seek help in staving off the plan.

“There should be some legislative relief, otherwise we’re going to be hurting economically,” Pico Rivera Mayor Alberto Natividad said during Monday’s meeting at Downey City Hall. “We would have to build on stilts.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is the focus of the consternation. The agency is revising flood maps in accordance with recent information that indicates that there is a greater danger of flooding than previously thought along the two rivers.

If the maps are published as planned in September, 1992, local governments would then have to ensure that new houses and buildings are constructed above the waterline of a 100-year flood. Protection also would be required as part of any substantial improvements planned for existing buildings.

During such a flood, waters averaging about four feet deep would spread over most of an 82-square-mile plain, affecting 16 cities in the Southeast, Long Beach and South Bay areas, according to federal officials.

In addition, flood insurance would be required for many new and substantially remodeled buildings in the flood plain. FEMA oversees the National Flood Insurance Program, which provides the vast majority of flood insurance through private carriers across the United States.

Currently, most property owners in the affected areas are not required to have flood insurance because the area is not considered to be at high risk.

Flood insurance on a home purchased with a $185,000 loan would range from about $240 to $530 a year, depending on the risk identified in the new maps. That rate is as much as twice the current cost, agency spokesman Michael Shore said.

City leaders said the new maps would trigger severe financial hardship for homeowners and developers that outweighs concerns about damages from a 100-year flood.

The release of the new maps could create a “catastrophic problem before the flood comes,” Bellflower Mayor Randy Bomgaars warned.

Representatives from Bell Gardens, Carson, Compton, Downey, Long Beach, Lynwood, Montebello, Paramount and South Gate also spoke against releasing the maps. Downey officials organized the meeting to lobby Anderson.

At the end of the hourlong meeting, Anderson said he would try to meet with other area congressmen to come up with a solution to the cities’ potential flooding problems. That includes a $327-million proposal by the Army Corps of Engineers to improve the Los Angeles and Rio Hondo riverbeds to eliminate the chance of major flooding.

But that project has not yet been approved by Congress and is at least 10 years from being completed, said Jon Sweeten, assistant project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers.

While Anderson was sympathetic to the city leaders, he made no promises. He emphasized that a devastating flood is always a possibility, even if Southern California is in the midst of a severe drought, and precautions should be taken as soon as possible.

“If we get hit by a big flood . . . what happens?” Anderson said. “We’ve got to try to work it out the best we can.” Anderson’s 32nd District stretches from San Pedro north to Downey.

The Army Corps of Engineers in 1987 announced that the Southeast, Long Beach and South Bay areas need more protection from a 100-year flood than previously thought. Such a flood has a 1% chance of occurring each year and a 65% chance of occurring every 100 years. One has not struck Los Angeles County this century.

Army engineers say such a flood could occur in Los Angeles County in a storm that would dump 10 inches of rain over a 24-hour period, including one deluge of six inches in a six-hour period.

In 1980, Long Beach was just one storm away from a 100-year flood after six consecutive storms pushed waters to the top of the Los Angeles River channel, engineers say.

A 100-year flood would blanket 82 square miles and cause $2.25 billion in damage to 120,000 buildings. The homes of about 500,000 people would be damaged, an agency spokesman said.

The Corps of Engineers estimates the waters would be two to eight feet deep throughout the plain.

The cities in the flood plain are Bellflower, Bell Gardens, Carson, Cerritos, Compton, Downey, Gardena, Lakewood, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Lynwood, Montebello, Paramount, Pico Rivera, Signal Hill, South Gate and Torrance. Unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County and a section of downtown Los Angeles are also included.

The majority of the damage would be in communities that straddle the lower Los Angeles River and the Rio Hondo south of the Whittier Narrows Dam, federal engineers have concluded.

City officials told Anderson that Congress should hold the federal agency at bay to allow the Corps of Engineers to complete its project, which would eliminate the threat of flood.

“It seems like a major waste,” Long Beach Councilman Evan Anderson Braude said.

Under the corps’ plan, levees along the two rivers, which now are between 20 and 25 feet high, would be raised an average of three to five feet. The plan also calls for raising 27 bridges to accommodate the higher channel and shoring up existing levees where they are weakest.