County planning commission provides online flood plain viewer

April 25--Ever since the federal law known as Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act was adopted in 2012 and the Federal Emergency Management Agency updated its flood maps property owners suddenly finding themselves in a floodplain have been deeply concerned about the impact.

The Berks County Planning Commission now has a tool on its website that anyone can use to see where their properties are located on the floodplain maps. It was introduced at a county commissioners meeting Thursday.

Properties near creeks, streams, rivers or lakes could be affected, and could be in a 100-year flood plain or a 500-year flood plain, county planner Shannon L. Rossman said.

Mortgage lenders require properties in floodplains to have flood insurance, and owners of properties in floodplains are required to disclose that if they sell, she said.

Brad Shirey, the commission's geographic information systems specialist, said the floodplain viewer on the website is a digital representation of the earth's surface.

FEMA used state data, some of it more than 30 years old, to prepare the maps because it didn't have the money to do engineering studies, he said.

That means some of the maps have problems because development has occurred, streams have cut new courses and dams have been removed, Shirey said.

He showed a floodplain map that still includes Angelica Lake and another that includes Felix's Dam in Muhlenberg Township. Both were removed years ago.

Commissioner Christian Y. Leinbach said property owners who think they have been included in a floodplain in error have to pay engineers to get the data they need to convince FEMA to change a floodplain map.

A group of homeowners who considered appealing the Felix Dam floodplain were told it would cost them $90,000 for the engineering study, he said.

People with mortgages or loans against their properties probably already are aware of the problem because they've been hit with high flood insurance premiums, Leinbach said.

"The good news is the County of Berks with the leadership of planning and our GIS department created a tool everyone can use in our county to find out if they have a problem," he said.

Contact Mary Young: 610-478-6292 or myoung@readingeagle.com.

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