National Flood Insurance Program

Barely noticed in the clamor over the financial industry bailout, a multibillion-dollar rescue operation is under way in Washington to keep one of the world's largest insurers afloat. The foundering giant is the federal government's own National Flood Insurance Program, which is $17.3 billion in debt to the U.S. Treasury. When the bills for Hurricanes Gustav, Hanna and Ike are added up, probably by year's end, the program will likely be in the red by more than $20 billion - with virtually no chance of paying it back.

Once a power source vital to the region's economic growth, and once even a haven for yachts, Darby Creek remains a thoroughfare with some of the region's lushest pastoral vistas. But it also is one of the country's most flood-prone streams, a significant drain on the National Flood Insurance Program, and a national lesson in what can go wrong along a developed waterway. Worse for the thousands who live along its 26-mile course, from the border of Chester and Delaware Counties to the Delaware River, the Darby appears to be just a major rainstorm away from spilling over its banks yet again.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently voted to extend the already insolvent National Flood Insurance Program - and expand the program to cover wind damage from hurricanes. The Senate may debate this measure soon. Pennsylvania and New Jersey residents should be outraged at this latest threat to pick the taxpayers' pocket. It's bad, unfair public policy. The federal government created the National Flood Insurance Program 40 years ago to fill a perceived gap in the private insurance market.

With New Jersey ranking among the top five states receiving federal flood-insurance payments, a national conservation group called yesterday for flood-prone communities to allow at-risk homes to be sold voluntarily to the government and then torn down. In a report compiling flood-insurance data from 1978 to 1995, the National Wildlife Federation targeted 31 New Jersey communities - including Atlantic City, North Wildwood and Ventnor - that have been repeatedly hit by flooding and could benefit from voluntary property buyouts.

Evidently, the cost of moving up is going up. To reduce property damages and cut losses from the beleaguered National Flood Insurance Program, the government has spent $15 million to protect buildings in seven towns from the capricious Neshaminy Creek in Bucks County. Now, officials say, the price tag has climbed to $25 million - about $8 million more than originally anticipated - and could go even higher. A big cost-driver is the seven-year-old project's centerpiece - the elevation of about 150 structures, believed to be one of the biggest such projects ever.

Six months after suspending the borough's flood-insurance program for homeowners, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has reinstated the policy with one stipulation: The borough must undertake a costly project to rectify floodway problems on a property at Seventh Street and Keystone Avenue owned by asphalt contractor Peter Messina. The renewed insurance policy was to go into effect at midnight, FEMA officials said at a special Colwyn Borough Council meeting yesterday. FEMA representative David Thomas told the council that it had 30 days to submit a timetable for implementing a plan to correct the water flow at a stretch of Messina's property along Darby Creek from the Amtrak bridge almost to the Pine Street bridge.

If life in the flood plain is a gamble, John Laber, for one, has decided to call nature's bluff. When he refinanced last year, Laber, who lives on Chestnut Street in Darby Borough next to Darby Creek, dropped his flood coverage. His reason is simple: "I couldn't afford the insurance. " Laber may be out on a limb over an often raging creek, but he is hardly there alone. In fact, among residents of flood-hazard areas, he has joined the overwhelming majority. Although in many cases it is a federal requirement, nationwide up to 85 percent of the homes and commercial buildings in flood zones are uninsured against flood losses, according to federal and private insurance experts.

The tiny Bucks County borough of Yardley has a handsome historic district, a picturesque canal path, and some of the most frequently flooded properties in the nation. Because of the Delaware River's chronic deluges, Yardley expects to receive $655,000 from a pilot grant program aimed at stemming federal flood claims in hard-hit towns. With its National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) swamped in $17.3 billion worth of red ink, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is making up to $160 million available to hundreds of communities across the country, including 172 in Pennsylvania and, so far, two in New Jersey.

In a former life, David Bollinger was a paramedic who was involved in more than his share of swift-water rescues. As a point man in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's mammoth project to remap America's floodplains, he is dealing with torrents of a different kind. For the last eight years, FEMA has been remaking its aging flood-map stock, playing catch-up with changes along waterways wrought by development, storm patterns, and natural processes. Around here, Montgomery and Bucks Counties now are going through a laborious process already played out in thousands of towns all over the country, including those in Chester, Delaware, and Gloucester Counties.

After a wake-up call from the June 12, 1996, flood, the Board of Supervisors has authorized engineers to begin work on $2.5 million worth of storm-water management improvements. On Tuesday, the board unanimously authorized Pennoni Associates, the engineering firm that conducted a yearlong study of drainage problems in western Middletown, to help carry out recommendations the firm made for township-wide flood prevention. It also voted, 4-1, to proceed with projects in nine neighborhoods in western Middletown that sustained severe damage.

Once a power source vital to the region's economic growth, and once even a haven for yachts, Darby Creek remains a thoroughfare with some of the region's lushest pastoral vistas. But it also is one of the country's most flood-prone streams, a significant drain on the National Flood Insurance Program, and a national lesson in what can go wrong along a developed waterway. Worse for the thousands who live along its 26-mile course, from the border of Chester and Delaware Counties to the Delaware River, the Darby appears to be just a major rainstorm away from spilling over its banks yet again.

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.

The slow-motion horror unfolding along the Mississippi River - and it appears that it will take significant turns for the worse by the end of the week - will end up being a truly national disaster. Along with its disruptive and potentially tragic consequences, it is likely to generate yet another tide of red ink for the nation's struggling National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The consequences will ripple to taxpayers along the Delaware River, the Schuylkill, and everywhere else in the country.

In a former life, David Bollinger was a paramedic who was involved in more than his share of swift-water rescues. As a point man in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's mammoth project to remap America's floodplains, he is dealing with torrents of a different kind. For the last eight years, FEMA has been remaking its aging flood-map stock, playing catch-up with changes along waterways wrought by development, storm patterns, and natural processes. Around here, Montgomery and Bucks Counties now are going through a laborious process already played out in thousands of towns all over the country, including those in Chester, Delaware, and Gloucester Counties.

In the Region Glaxo takes a charge on legal costs GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. said it expected to take a $2.36 billion charge against second-quarter earnings for the costs of settling court cases over the antidepressant Paxil and diabetes drug Avandia. The company said the charge included settlements, agreements to settle, and other provisions for long-standing legal cases. Glaxo has major operations in the Philadelphia area. The announcement comes a day after a Food and Drug Administration panel of experts voted to allow Avandia to remain on the market.

Evidently, the cost of moving up is going up. To reduce property damages and cut losses from the beleaguered National Flood Insurance Program, the government has spent $15 million to protect buildings in seven towns from the capricious Neshaminy Creek in Bucks County. Now, officials say, the price tag has climbed to $25 million - about $8 million more than originally anticipated - and could go even higher. A big cost-driver is the seven-year-old project's centerpiece - the elevation of about 150 structures, believed to be one of the biggest such projects ever.

Barely noticed in the clamor over the financial industry bailout, a multibillion-dollar rescue operation is under way in Washington to keep one of the world's largest insurers afloat. The foundering giant is the federal government's own National Flood Insurance Program, which is $17.3 billion in debt to the U.S. Treasury. When the bills for Hurricanes Gustav, Hanna and Ike are added up, probably by year's end, the program will likely be in the red by more than $20 billion - with virtually no chance of paying it back.

The tiny Bucks County borough of Yardley has a handsome historic district, a picturesque canal path, and some of the most frequently flooded properties in the nation. Because of the Delaware River's chronic deluges, Yardley expects to receive $655,000 from a pilot grant program aimed at stemming federal flood claims in hard-hit towns. With its National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) swamped in $17.3 billion worth of red ink, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is making up to $160 million available to hundreds of communities across the country, including 172 in Pennsylvania and, so far, two in New Jersey.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently voted to extend the already insolvent National Flood Insurance Program - and expand the program to cover wind damage from hurricanes. The Senate may debate this measure soon. Pennsylvania and New Jersey residents should be outraged at this latest threat to pick the taxpayers' pocket. It's bad, unfair public policy. The federal government created the National Flood Insurance Program 40 years ago to fill a perceived gap in the private insurance market.

A few days after a trip to post-Katrina New Orleans, I reread my homeowners' insurance policy, just to familiarize myself with the coverage it affords and to make sure I had enough. According to a survey by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the fact that I pay attention to this stuff before my house catches fire makes me an exception. It came as a surprise to most of the 673 homeowners nationwide who responded to the survey that the typical property and liability policy doesn't cover home damage from floods, earthquakes, water-line breaks, termites, mold, and other perils.