New flood maps mean big savings to Kingston [The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)]

His wife said the current cost is through the roof.

"It's a very foolish premium," she said.

Cooper said the neighborhood was labeled high-risk with the argument it could be flooded by Toby Creek.

However, a giant impounding basin off Division Street in Pringle holds and diverts water from the Back Mountain in the Toby Creek watershed so Pringle and Kingston aren't flooded, officials said.

Rising water in the basin is gravity-forced into a massive underground pipe to a pumping station in Edwardsville, where it is then dumped into the Susquehanna River.

Cooper said she unsuccessfully urged legislators to redo the maps for years but didn't see results until the federal government allocated $1 billion in 2003 to computerize and update flood maps across the country.

Paul Keating said municipal officials have tried to get the Kingston neighborhood out of the high-risk zone since he became municipal administrator 16 years ago because its tripled insurance rates weren't warranted.

"As far as we're concerned, it's been a long time coming, and it's finally happening," Keating said.

The neighborhood is the lowest spot in town, he said. The area once had minor basement flooding since he's been administrator, but that was due to a malfunctioning pumping system that had nothing to do with the impounding basin, Keating said.

New pumps coming

The municipality is spending more than $100,000 to install three new pumps at the Mercer-Poplar pumping station, which will mitigate street flooding in that neighborhood, Keating said. The new pumps should be installed within two months, he said.

"We feel the system we have in place as well as all the improvements we're making are surely sufficient to eradicate any drainage issues in that zone," he said.

Cooper said two of her children own properties in the neighborhood.

She believes the high-risk flood designation has hurt property sales.

The new maps were unveiled in 2009 and originally slated for adoption in 2011.

Neighborhood residents felt powerless because delays prevented them from realizing reductions promised in the upcoming maps, Cooper said.

"My frustration is that it's three years later, and we're still paying the higher rates," she said.

View the maps

--The new flood maps may be viewed at all municipal buildings in the county or online at https:// www.rampp-team.com/pa.htm.

--Scroll to Luzerne County and click on the "preliminary interactive flood map index (sheet 1)." Use the PDF tools to zoom in to your section of the county and click inside the blue numbered box to obtain an aerial map. This map must be enlarged to identify individual properties.

--Any property in a blue-shaded area labeled as a flood zone starting with the letter A is in the high-risk zone, requiring insurance with an outstanding mortgage.

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(c)2012 The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)

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