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Revised maps give hope to homeowners

FEMA flood zone maps triggered fears of soaring homeowners insurance, but county map revisions took many relieved residents out of the flood zones.

By BRYAN BURNS
Published December 23, 2005

Sun City Center residents Dave Brown and Joy Gasser said this week that they're encouraged by revised flood plain maps the county is planning to submit to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

That's because the revisions show a number of houses in Sun City Center, as well as the rest of the county, are not in a flood zone.

Those houses had been in the flood zone in maps released by FEMA several weeks ago. The maps, produced by FEMA using county data, added roughly 25,000 homes in Hillsborough County to high-risk flood zones.

That upset residents who feared their homeowners insurance would skyrocket.

On Dec. 16, Brown and Gasser met with officials in the county's Hazard Mitigation Department to review the county's lastest map. There, manager Eugene Henry and planning technician Chris Zambito presented corrections to the flood plain maps that could be adopted by FEMA.

"I'm very encouraged," Brown said after the meeting.

Areas where the flood zone touches the edge of the lot but not the home itself are the most likely to be removed from the flood plain maps.

"We're going to take all the suspect areas and send them to FEMA," Zambito said.

Henry thinks there is a "good" chance FEMA will accept the revisions.

"It'll take us three weeks just to get FEMA what they need," he added.

Ultimately, FEMA will decide whether to take the corrections into account.

The revisions are part of a national effort to bring flood maps up to date.

Notification letters that were to be sent out to affected property owners have been pushed back until after the first of the year. Public hearings on the map have also been delayed.

"The longer the delay, the better for county residents," Brown said. "That means they're redrawing the maps because they were bad."

Gasser said she's grateful for the work being done by the county's Hazard Mitigation Department.

"I appreciate what they are doing, and I think they're making great progress," she said.

[Last modified December 22, 2005, 09:29:03]