Flood Insurance Rates Not Receding

Thousands of homeowners along the Santa Ana River could see their flood insurance rates drop if the federal government attends to one task: throwing away the old map that shows the river basin to be flood-prone.

Sounds easy enough.

But the fact that the map has not already been changed is a real head-scratcher for electronic engineer Stan Kleczko, a Huntington Beach resident who noticed that the federal government’s national flood insurance rate map does not account for the $500 million spent so far, mostly by the federal government, to make sure the river basin does not flood. The map is used by the insurance industry to set rates.

Kleczko complained to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), who on Wednesday sent a letter to James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, asking that topographers go back to the drawing board.

“The flood threat has been diminished along the lower reaches of the river, but thousands of homeowners in my congressional district are still being forced to purchase costly flood insurance because FEMA’s flood maps are out of date,” Rohrabacher contended in his letter to Witt.

Taking care of that one major detail could save each property owner in the river basin about $500 annually on flood insurance, or about $15 million countywide, Rohrabacher said. He argued that even though the flood work is not completed, the flood zone designation should be lifted from the area that is already improved--from the mouth of the river in Newport Beach to near Anaheim Stadium. Rohrabacher wrote that he hopes FEMA “will reflect favorably on the half-billion dollars which have been invested in flood-control measures along the river.”

Sure thing, came the immediate response from one of the chief mappers at FEMA, who said the agency has been following the Santa Ana River work. Rohrabacher and company just beat them to it.

“We are not surprised by this. We are in the loop,” said Mike Buckley, the FEMA mapper.

But several conditions must be met before FEMA can change the river basin’s flood category on an interim basis.

They include: certification by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that “adequate progress” has been made; a finding that all the funds for the project have been authorized by Congress, 60% of the money has been appropriated and at least half the money spent; and a determination that construction is underway on “all critical features of the flood protection system.”

Orange County may not qualify under some of the finer points in the rules. But Rohrabacher’s office is bracing for a fight.

Rohrabacher’s legislative director, Rick Dykema, says the bottom line is that FEMA cannot legally maintain artificially high premiums. “Our guess is that the rates are far above what the risk is that’s involved, and if that’s the case, FEMA is acting illegally,” he said.

However, once the interim status is granted, homeowners would still be required to carry flood insurance, but at lower rates, equal to those paid by residents who do not live in flood-prone areas, said FEMA’s Buckley. The good news is that once construction of the flood-control project is finished, homeowners will no longer be required to carry insurance, Buckley added.

The whole process of achieving the “interim” designation will take several months because the several dozen maps involved must be “republished” before new rates can take effect, Buckley said.

None of this surprises Rohrabacher, who said he expected “bureaucratic inertia” when he signed the letter.

“We have spent $500 million on this project, and no one can tell me that has not had an impact on the flood threat to my area,” Rohrabacher said. “We are going to win. The inertia of the system has to be overcome. . . . I am not going to let anybody get in my way.”

Kleczko promised to be at Rohrabacher’s side throughout the battle. His decision to live between Brookhurst Avenue and the Santa Ana River channel in Huntington Beach costs him $800 a year in flood insurance--almost twice what he said he pays to protect against a fire that could destroy his home.