New f lood maps on the way, official says
Some residents could see cheaper flood insurance
Some Capital Region residents could soon be paying less for flood insurance.
Assemblyman John McDonald III, D-Cohoes, said he has been advocating and working with state Department of Environmental Conservation officials, along with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to have flood maps updated for river communities such as Waterford, Green Island, Troy, Cohoes and Watervliet.
According to the FEMA website, “Flood hazard mapping is an important part of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), as it is the basis of the NFIP regulations and flood insurance requirements. FEMA maintains and updates data through Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) and risk assessments. FIRMs include statistical information such as data for river flow, storm tides, hydrologic/hydraulic analyses and rainfall and topographic surveys.”
“This is something that I’ve been advocating for the past several years, since I came to the Assembly, particularly in the communities of Green Island, Watervliet, Troy and Waterford that have been hit very hard by this,” said McDonald on Tuesday. “The reality is this: the FEMA maps play a very critical role in the determination of what flood insurance rates will be for those people, particularly those living within the flood zones, and the maps have not been updated in generations or decades for sure.”
McDonald said the reason why he has been pushing for updated flood maps is because he believes many residents are paying too much on flood insurance for no reason, since many of these river communities have not seen any flood damage in many years.
“Areas that have never flooded have been paying exorbitant rates in the past and has continued to climb dramatically in the past several years because of the fact that the federal fund has been depleted because of all the flooding and disasters that have happened throughout the nation,” said McDonald. “It’s a matter of basically making sure that we have the most up to date accurate maps, which play a critical role in determining what the rates will be for the residents.”
McDonald said the current rates for many of these local river communities are way too high, and he has heard that from several of his constituents as well.
“We want to make sure that those residents that currently live there are not displaced because of the exorbitant rates,” explained McDonald. “I’ve had residents tell me that their flood insurance rates are sometimes double or triple the total cost of their property taxes, which is just totally unacceptable.”
Officials said they believe that with updated flood maps, some flood insurance rates will then decrease.
“We’re hopeful that these new maps will provide greater clarity and my hope is that we’ll actually have a more accurate determination of what the flood potential is and therefore that will lead [to] more accuracy on what they’re actually paying in regards to [flood] insurance costs,” said McDonald. “My gut [feeling] is for some individuals, although I can’t say this with firm conviction, my gut [feeling] is that some people [who] have been overpaying for years will see a reduction.”
McDonald said within the next couple of months the updated FEMA maps should go out to the public for viewing, and then eventually the updated flood maps will take effect.