Revised flood maps delayed for a year

The delay is bad news for those who anticipated lower insurance.

By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER, Times Staff Writer
Published August 29, 2007

TAMPA - About 12,000 homeowners whom Hillsborough County no longer considers at high risk for flooding must wait another year for a break on their insurance.

On Tuesday, the county announced that new flood maps that will reclassify thousands of homes as having lower flood risk will be delayed until fall 2008. The Federal Emergency Management Agency needs more time to review and approve changes before the county adopts the maps.

The delay wasn't welcome news for those who were told that the county's new maps had shifted their homes to higher ground, a cartographic adjustment that saves them between $300 and $1,220 a year in flood insurance.

"I have to pay another year for something that I don't need?" said Gladys Busino of Lutz. "I would have saved about $911. It's all very aggravating."

County officials said they were fielding about 10 phone complaints a day.

"The people who were told they're out (of the flood zone) are frustrated," said Chris Zambito, a senior planner in the county's Planning and Growth Management Department. "We usually get the complaints when they are up for renewal."

The county decided to reassess the maps after flooding from El Nino in the late 1990s. Officials issued drafts of the new maps in November 2006, holding nine public meetings and 18 open houses to alert residents. Most homeowners didn't see their status change. But along with the 12,000 who were no longer at risk of flooding, the new maps also placed about 6,000 homes that had been considered high and dry into the path of potential floodwaters.

"We've never had any flooding problems," said Brenda Johnson, who lives in Valrico but was told her home was now in a flood zone. "It just didn't make any sense to us."

Like 2,100 others, Johnson appealed or protested the new maps. The county reviewed each case, and approved the claim of the owners in 2,000 of those cases. Johnson's case was one of those approved.

"Keep in mind, the county is modeling a thousand square miles with the new maps," Zambito said. "A lot of people have had better info at home and brought in new information."

But the new maps must be approved by FEMA, so each appeal tweaking the maps must also be reviewed. That requires the agency to do its own engineering to check the claims. FEMA told the county last month that it needed more time.

"It's a federal process, so it has to go through checks and balances," Zambito said.

The county recommended that even if residents were told that their homes would be mapped out of the high-risk flood area, they still should carry insurance until the new maps take effect. If the new maps put homeowners into a flood-prone category, the county said they should not be required to carry high-risk flood insurance until next year, but should consider carrying a lower-cost, preferred-risk policy that costs about $300 a year.

Gladys Busino said the county has been helpful in explaining why the delay is necessary, and she said officials were as frustrated as she was.

But that's little solace for her and her husband, Richard, who were told this summer that their mortgage company was now requiring them to pay more in flood insurance. They were scrambling for new insurance, but, without the new maps, they needed to pay $150 for an elevation survey proving that their house isn't in a flood area to get a new policy.

Richard Busino built the concrete block house himself in 1986, making sure it was a foot above the flood plain.

The couple didn't pay flood insurance until 1994, when the county produced maps shifting them into a flood zone. That classification never made much sense until the county changed it last year to low flood risk, Gladys Busino said.

"Even during El Nino, we didn't flood," Busino said. "We've always been dry."

With insurance costs skyrocketing, Richard Busino said relief is sorely needed.

"Most of the neighbors I know need help," he said. "They're at the breaking point."

[Last modified August 29, 2007, 00:09:32]