Flood Insurance

A bill, crafted in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, to revise the federal flood-insurance program will be considered by the U.S. House of Representatives this spring. The legislation is designed primarily to restore the flood-insurance program to financial solvency by increasing the amount that can be borrowed to cover disaster damages to $22 billion, from $3.5 billion. The measure, introduced in November by Rep. Michael Oxley (R., Ohio) and Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.), had been the subject of committee hearings in the House and Senate.

Borough homeowners will pay $50 extra this year for their federal flood insurance because the borough has not resolved a two-year dispute over a Darby Creek floodway-encroachment violation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides flood insurance for homeowners, has put the borough on a yearlong probation, the first step toward suspending flood insurance, according to Dave Thomas, who supervises FEMA's community mitigation programs. The probation was ordered after a meeting Nov. 8 between property owner Dave Messina and officials from the borough, FEMA and the state Department of Environmental Protection.

MINOT, N.D. - The U.S. government will help the flooded city of Minot "for the duration," the cabinet secretary responsible for federal disaster assistance said Wednesday, but she cautioned that North Dakota residents should better prepare for future disasters. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the federal government "does not have deep pockets, nor is it a panacea," after taking a helicopter tour over the city where 4,100 homes have been damaged by Souris River floodwaters and more than 11,000 people have had to temporarily leave.

Steve Bosch of Elkins Park wanted to make sure that he wasn't just engaging in a gripe session when he contacted me. What he hoped to do was impart a warning to readers who might be in the market for flood insurance. Although it appears to be a no-brainer for, say, people who live in low-lying areas near the Schuylkill or the Delaware, Bosch cautioned that flood insurance was not something to be taken lightly. He has lived in his house since 1998 and survived 12 floods, he said, starting with Hurricane Floyd in 1999 and ending with Hurricane Irene.

When Muriel Sandner and her husband purchased their home on Beach Avenue here in 1959, they had no flood insurance. When the federal government started a flood insurance program in 1968, the Sandners didn't bother to sign up. "My husband thought it was a waste," Sandner recalls. "Even in the storm of 1962, we got no water in our house. He always said that if we lost the house, it's the property that really has the value. " In the mid-'80s, she insured the contents of her home - but not the house itself.

Few places flood the way St. Charles County floods. These lowlands between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers often are submerged - 43 percent of the county and the homes of 3,500 people are underwater right now. Even when nature is less dramatic than it has been this summer - such as when it merely rains hard - many places are awash. And time and again, when the waters rise, the people of St. Charles County turn to the American taxpayer for help. Then many of them move right back into places such as the Princess Jodi Village trailer park along the Missouri or "river rat" shacks along the Mississippi.

Ben P. Lee stood in the sandy soil skirting his new 5,000-square-foot brick Colonial home yesterday and squinted out toward the dirty floodwaters that were 150 yards away and creeping closer every hour. A certified public accountant, Lee knew the math was simple. If the roiling water invades his $350,000 home before midnight tonight, he must cover the entire loss. But if the onslaught strikes one minute later, Lee, by a stroke of luck any Georgia preacher would consider divine, will be saved.

In 1980, Godfrey Cheshire spent $15,000 to move his Nags Head, N.C., cottage back from the relentless ocean. "We didn't want to lose the house," he explained. Now, Cheshire, 73, is worried that Congress, rather than the ocean, may snatch his cottage away. Like thousands of others with homes and businesses perched perilously on the nation's coasts, Cheshire depends on federal flood insurance to make his home secure. Without it, he would be forced to pay thousands of dollars each year to protect his property or face the risk of an uninsured catastrophic loss.

A controversy over dumping has emerged following the federal government's suspension of the borough's flood insurance. On one side are borough officials, who are anxious to get back in the government insurance program because Colwyn is surrounded on three sides by Darby Creek. Because of the suspension, property owners cannot obtain or renew flood insurance. To be reinstated the borough must certify that a property at Seventh Street and Keystone Avenue along the Darby Creek has never been a dumping ground.

Congress is quietly considering changes to the national flood insurance program that could put the brakes on coastal development and pay some property owners to move away from eroding shorelines. A wide-ranging reform bill would forbid construction on land that could be washed away within 30 years at current erosion rates, and limit the size of new buildings that would be in danger within 60 years. But the bill's most controversial feature would pressure some homeowners nearest the water to move or demolish structures within a "zone of imminent collapse" - buildings that could be expected to be undermined by erosion within 10 years.

BETHEL, Vt. - June Tierney and Kellie Burke never envisioned island living in the Vermont woods, but Tropical Storm Irene had other ideas. Their home, a two-story, natural-sided saltbox, was a rural idyll on a wooded 10-acre lot off a dirt road, with a stairway leading from their backyard down a steep bank to Gilead Brook, a small stream. When Irene blew through Vermont on Aug. 28, the brook became a raging torrent. After the storm, the main part of it had moved around to the other side of the house, leaving a smaller stream still flowing along its old bed. Now Tierney, a 47-year-old lawyer who works for the state board that regulates utilities, and Burke, 48-year-old high school librarian, have to cross a ford - a new, narrow road that dips into the old stream and has no guardrails - to get home, and face an uncertain future.

  MINOT, N.D. - In the middle of winter, when the temperature slips toward zero and bone-numbing winds blow in off the prairie, living in a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer may not be hell - it's way too cold for that - but as the saying goes, you can see it from there. "We basically live in a 400-square-foot icebox," said Shanda Cool, who lost not only her house but also the boutique artisan bakery she was on the verge of opening before the Souris River flooded most of central Minot in June.

Steve Bosch of Elkins Park wanted to make sure that he wasn't just engaging in a gripe session when he contacted me. What he hoped to do was impart a warning to readers who might be in the market for flood insurance. Although it appears to be a no-brainer for, say, people who live in low-lying areas near the Schuylkill or the Delaware, Bosch cautioned that flood insurance was not something to be taken lightly. He has lived in his house since 1998 and survived 12 floods, he said, starting with Hurricane Floyd in 1999 and ending with Hurricane Irene.

HOWELL, N.J. - State and federal officials are warning residents that they have only about a month to apply for federal disaster money. Victims of the flooding from Hurricane Irene have until Oct. 31 to apply for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. On Wednesday, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno toured Howell, where many residents said they were still waiting for FEMA checks after their property was flooded in the week leading up to Irene, and then again when the hurricane hit. Guadagno encouraged all residents affected by the flooding to apply for aid, even if they have flood insurance or aren't certain of their eligibility.

No matter your take on Irene - real threat or Weather Channel hype-o-rama - there remains the potential for damaging storms as the hurricane season grinds on to November. It appears that no one can predict with any certainty where nature's ax will fall. While last weekend's storm meant just 45 minutes of twig-picking for some homeowners, others face thousands of dollars in cleanup costs that insurance might not cover. Check your homeowners' policy to see what is covered and what is not. Some policies have hurricane deductibles that are higher than the normal ones - as much as 4 percent, depending on how far you are from the ocean.

With the National Flood Insurance Program struggling to contain an $18 billion dam burst of debt, Robert J. Wiley is convinced that homeowners in the borough of Eddystone are being forced, unfairly, to stick their fingers in the hole in the dike. In August, Wiley was told that he had to buy federal flood insurance - a $600 annual premium - even though his Delaware County town had no history of flooding. Abutting the Delaware River and scored by the Ridley and Crum Creeks, Eddystone is a tiny piece of one of the most ambitious mapping projects ever undertaken in the United States.

MINOT, N.D. - The U.S. government will help the flooded city of Minot "for the duration," the cabinet secretary responsible for federal disaster assistance said Wednesday, but she cautioned that North Dakota residents should better prepare for future disasters. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the federal government "does not have deep pockets, nor is it a panacea," after taking a helicopter tour over the city where 4,100 homes have been damaged by Souris River floodwaters and more than 11,000 people have had to temporarily leave.

Dear Harry: I bought my home in 1999. The bank would not approve a mortgage unless I had flood insurance. I purchased it for the $56,000 cost of the home. A few years later, the mortgage was sold by my bank, and there were no problems until 2009. At that time, the servicing company insisted that I up the coverage on all my insurance to $113,000. That was the value they said the house was worth. Yesterday, I got a letter saying that a further hike was needed. They insist that houses in my area are increasing in value despite the fact that they are in a flood zone and that real estate is generally declining in value elsewhere.

NEW ORLEANS - All along the swollen Mississippi, hundreds of thousands of lives depend on a small army of engineers, deputies and even prison inmates keeping round-the-clock watch at the many floodwalls and earthen levees holding the water back. They are looking for any droplets that seep through the barriers and any cracks that threaten to turn small leaks into big problems. The work is hot and sometimes tedious, but without it, the flooding that has caused weeks of misery from Illinois to the Mississippi Delta could get much worse.

NEW YORK - Tornadoes and flooding in the Midwest and South are painful reminders to small businesses about the need for disaster preparation. Disaster prep can include reinforcing your building, putting inventory on pallets, and keeping a supply of plywood on hand. It also means being sure data including financial ledgers, customer lists, and product information are backed up. And it means thinking about how to stay in touch with employees and possibly get them working remotely. Figure out what you can and cannot do: If you have a manufacturing business or a retail store and it is damaged in a disaster, you'll likely be shut down until you can clean up and repair your premises.