By Sue Bergstrom for Valdez City News –
Community and Economic Development Department Senior Planning/GIS Technician AnnMarie Lain stood in the Valdez City Council Chambers on Wednesday, 1/27 with the daunting task of explaining a complicated Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) process to residents of the Alpine Woods and Nordic subdivisions in order to ask for their input. With the help of a hand-out, a PowerPoint presentation and occasional input from Community and Economic Development Director Lisa Von Bargen and City Manager Dennis Ragsdale, Lain laid out a picture of a long, convoluted series of events and the options for going forward.
(See maps and other documents at the bottom of this article)
Over the last several years FEMA has been working with the City to gather data on floodplains to update the FEMA issued Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM), which identifies flood zones, base flood elevations, and floodplain boundaries. This map is used to determine where the purchase of flood insurance is required for properties with federally-backed mortgages and which development areas require floodplain development permits. In April FEMA submitted draft maps to the City of Valdez. That’s when it was discovered that the flood risk for Alpine Woods and Nordic subdivisions had been assessed a great deal higher than before, despite the fact that the city had made improvements to the levee system in order to get them certified by FEMA. (Once a levee system is certified, flood insurance is no longer required for the area within protection of the levees) This would cause flood insurance for area residents to increase greatly.
Currently FEMA procedure when evaluating an area with uncertified levees is to treat them as if they aren’t there. The agency recognizes that this practice is not realistic so is implementing a new procedure known as a Levee Analysis Mapping procedure (LAMP). A letter from FEMA states that a LAMP would not be started until next federal fiscal year, which begins in October 2016.FEMALetter2016_01_28 In the meantime, FEMA suggest what they refer to as ‘a seclusion’; leaving the area out of the map revision. This would allow flood insurance rates for those in the area to stay the same during the LAMP process and levee certification.
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Lain gave the background of flood issues, levee building and repair and interaction with FEMA going back to 1984 as she walked her audience through the complex material. She pointed out that FEMA did not consider public input necessary at this point in the process and had actually instructed The City not to ask for input, but that City of Valdez wanted people to be informed and involved. City Manager Ragsdale noted that in his experience FEMA would not accept input as valid unless it came from an engineer qualified in the area in any case. Lain told the audience that the paperwork to get one part of the levee system certified was completed and ready to send in to FEMA. The meeting closed with those present agreeing to go with the seclusion option.
