FLOOD RISKS GROWING FOR US HOMEOWNERS
Insurance rates likely to climb in April for property owners
WASHINGTON >> The cost of federal flood insurance will need to increase significantly across much of the country to meet the growing risks of climate change and that could affect a thousand or more Woodland and Yolo County residents.
New data suggests that the National Flood Insurance Program, which provides a majority of U.S. flood insurance policies, would have to quadruple premiums on high-risk homes inside floodplains to reflect the risks they already face, according to a report issued recently by the First Street Foundation, a group of academics and experts that models flood risks. The information was first reported by The New York Times and CNN.
According to The Times, by 2050, First Street projected increased flooding tied to climate change will require a sevenfold increase of insurance premiums.
While wildfires and hurricanes, coupled with recent snowstorms in places like Texas, capture most of the headlines, flooding is the most common and costly disaster in the country. And, according to CNN, almost no place in the country is immune as 98% of all counties have experienced at least one major flooding event.
CNN noted that in the past decade alone, floods have caused more than $155 billion worth of damage.
Paying for flood damages is going to become more costly around April 1, according to the Times, which reported FEMA, which runs the flood program, is set to announce new premiums, using modern flood-modeling techniques that more closely reflect the actual risks facing
individual properties — the same approach that First Street said it had used in its calculations.
The Times reported that most experts agree a closer analysis of flood risks will lead to costlier insurance for owners of high-risk homes than what they already pay.
The problem could become particularly acute for homeowners and businesses located in Woodland’s northern and northeast areas.
The city of Woodland has been moving ahead with a Lower Cache Creek Flood Feasibility Study to protect those properties, despite objections of some farmers and landowners outside city limits.
History is on the side of the city, with Cache Creek having flooded many times in recent decades. In January 1983, a levee break near the area of what is now County Road 102 flooded a major portion of eastern Woodland. Floodwaters traveled almost as far as East Street.
The Army Corps has reported that there have been four major flood periods documented for the Cache Creek basin during the last half of the 20th century, and 20 severe floods since 1900. It was only two years ago that Cache Creek came close to overtopping its banks just north of Woodland, a crisis that was averted after residents in Yolo worked to reinforce the levee with sandbags.
Council members have noted that around 1,000 homeowners and businesses are paying flood insurance rates of between $3,000 and $5,000 a year. That’s a significant economic burden for the community, according to Mayor Tom Stallard.
If Cache Creek were to flood, depending on the location and severity, water could be only a few feet deep or as much as 13 feet deep.
Woodland is now working with state and federal authorities, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to prepare a plan that would effectively divert water from a major flood along the city’s northern side, channeling it to the Yolo Bypass and Cache Creek Settling Basin.
It was just two weeks ago that the City Council approved an environmental report for the proposed project, a step that kicks the plan to the Army Corps, which will review it.
The flood plan has been under review for almost a decade but has gained importance as a result of recent state and federal legislation that requires the city provide flood protection.
Woodland is the only city in the Sacramento area that doesn’t have a minimum 100-year flood protection plan, meaning a way of coping with a flood of such intensity that it occurs once every 100 years. Woodland’s project would offer 200year flood protection.
While it’s still in the working stages the basics of the plan includes building a levee or series of earthen barriers that would start west of County Road 98, going north near County Road 16 to Carter Lane, and then tracking east to Churchill Downs Avenue and County Road 102, before shifting south to County Road 22 just north of Interstate-5.
The levee could range from between 6- and 14-feet tall depending on the area, and CR98 and CR99 could be raised where they and the levee intersect. There would also be a number of drainage channels in the areas of CR98, CR99, CR101, CR102, Hwy. 113 and under Interstate 5.
According to The Times, climate and disaster experts argue the cost of flood insurance should reflect the full risk of living in floodprone areas, as a warning to prospective homebuyers and a signal to local officials to limit development in those places.
“Because the federal government has no control over land-use planning or building codes, which are set by state and local governments, the flood insurance program is one of its most powerful tools to influence how and where Americans build homes,” according to The Times news story.
The Times also noted that any increase in insurance costs would be spread out over years or decades, because Congress prevents FEMA from raising individual homeowners’ premiums by more than 18% annually. So even if FEMA’s new system meant that ultimate rates doubled on paper for some people, those who already had coverage would be protected from paying the full increase all at once.
However, when a home that is covered by flood insurance changes owners, the new buyer must pay the full rate right away, The Times stated. So big increases in flood insurance rates could scare off buyers for flood-prone homes, reducing their value or even making them hard to sell.