Dangerously outdated, the previous maps not only left lives and homes in harm's way, but also contributed to the NFIP's descent into a fiscal abyss. With the insurance program due to expire at the end of August, Congress is trying to figure out how - indeed, whether - to keep it afloat.
But even the NFIP's sharpest legislative critics support the remapping as necessity. The $5 billion project is about 70 percent complete nationwide; in this region, only Montgomery, Bucks, and Burlington Counties' maps are yet to be finalized.
But at ground level, not everyone is happy with the results. Across the country, the new renderings are puzzling and infuriating owners who have suddenly found their properties in floodplains - and are compelled to buy the government's special insurance if their mortgages are federally insured.
The maps have been particularly vexing in Eddystone, with a mostly working-class population of 2,400. For Wiley's money, FEMA botched the job there.
According to an analysis by senior Delaware County planner Shaun Bollig, six parcels were removed from the newly drawn "special hazard zone" - an area in which a "100-year flood" has a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year. But 107 properties, including 22 on Wiley's street, were added.
"This is theft," complained Wiley, who owns a 19th-century twin in the 700 block of Eddystone Avenue, about a half-mile from the Delaware and roughly 500 yards from Ridley Creek.
FEMA officials "want us to pay for their losses" on the insurance program, said Eugene M. Krupa, who owns the twin with Wiley. "They know damn well we're not in any danger here."
