As the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) redraws flood maps that define coverage eligibility for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), some city and state officials are opposing the move because it could interfere with development,
The New York Times reports.
A few weeks ago, the Times reported on the Institute for Business & Home Safety's report, HURRICANE IKE: Nature's Force vs. Structural Strength, which highlighted the true risks facing coastal properties that are improperly elevated to the 100-year Base Flood Elevation and therefore are at increased risk of damage from storm surge. The report also called for FEMA and the NFIP to do more to encourage proper elevation in high risk areas by publishing updated maps that illustrate a 500-year flood risk. Read the report.
In an article in today's Times, a reporter tells the story of Portland, Maine, where more accurate federal flood insurance maps for the city's harbor would shift the city's stretch of piers into a new classification that could experience higher waves and more damage. That would end the city's ambitious pier-top development plans and threaten the fishing fleet, officials told the Times.
Here is an excerpt from the full article:
The shift means that construction of new buildings would be effectively prohibited on the sturdy plank piers, which lobstermen have shared for years with restaurants, office space, even some condominiums.
Existing structures would also face a grim future. They could be rebuilt to half of their current value if a hurricane rakes them into the ocean. That concerns city officials, who worry the wharfs could slip into disrepair if pier owners see little economic reason to maintain them, prompting memories of a dark period of harbor dilapidation in the 1970s.
"We think this designation is extreme. It goes too far," said Penny St. Louis Littell, director of the city's planning department. "Our harbor has not had that kind of damage."
Many communities are facing economic development challenges as the Federal Emergency Management Agency uses new technologies and sharpened science to update floodplain maps. Plane-mounted lasers are capturing the terrain below with much more precision, and updated computer models account for rising risk of floods associated with stronger hurricanes.
Wave velocity can be inconvenient
Often, the result is a larger floodplain. More homes and business are considered vulnerable. That can complicate development projects -- or prohibit them entirely. That move is generally applauded by environmental groups, which believe the federal government has encouraged construction along coastlines vulnerable to climate change through overly cheap public insurance programs.
FEMA, for its part, is following orders from Congress. The remapping is meant to save lives, prevent damage and reduce the National Flood Insurance Program's huge exposure to loss.
The proposed maps for Portland would designate the harbor a "V Zone," where winds and waves can act in tandem to tear a building down. The piers currently fall within the relatively lenient "A Zone," which requires new buildings to be slightly raised.
"We follow the science," said one FEMA official involved in the process. "And the science doesn't always take us to places that are convenient."
The sea near Portland has risen about 8 inches since 1912. Greenhouse gas emissions appear to be hastening that rate. Ocean temperatures are warming more quickly than in the past, having risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1970. Water expands as a result, and the "rate of sea-level rise has accelerated in recent decades," according to a study released this year by the University of Maine.
"V Zone" is short for velocity zone, one of the most dangerous areas identified by FEMA. Wind-driven waves are apt to rise 3 feet before smashing into structures. The result is bleak.
"The forces involved in V Zone flooding would topple almost any building or do substantial structural damage," said David Conrad, an expert on the flood insurance program with the National Wildlife Federation. "That's why it's critical to locate where those areas are."