Changing flood maps could require hundreds of Lackawanna County property owners to buy insurance

Dec. 10--SCRANTON -- Nearly 900 Lackawanna County property owners may have to purchase flood insurance for the first time when new flood insurance rate maps go into effect next year.

Created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the maps display areas at risk in the event of a 100-year flood. In other words, they display areas that have a 1% chance of flooding in any given year.

Updated versions of those maps becoming effective in August will affect more than 2,000 county property owners whose flood risk may increase or decrease with the changes. Those with federally backed mortgages who live in newly designated flood-prone areas would be required to purchase flood insurance, meaning the changes could hit family budgets. Flood insurance, which is provided through the National Flood Insurance Program, can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars a year depending on the flood zone and coverage.

The Lackawanna County Flood Risk Coalition, with support from FEMA, will host a public open house tonight to discuss flood risk, flood insurance and ways to mitigate flood-related disasters. The open house runs from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Albright Memorial Library in the city.

The event will provide valuable information to residents affected by the changes, including the owners of about 874 properties that will be newly located in a flood plain under the updated maps, coalition member Mary Liz Donato said.

Less than 1,500 county properties will come out of the flood plain when the new maps are implemented, she said.

Tonight's program will begin with a brief introduction on the changing maps, after which attendees may talk with insurance, mapping and other experts who will be on hand to answer questions, said Maggie Dunn, an outreach coordinator in the mitigation division for FEMA Region III.

Residents can look up their properties on draft flood maps by visiting lackawannacounty.org/floodrisk.

The changing maps also affect municipalities, which must pass updated flood plain management ordinances based on the new maps before they go into effect in the summer. The local municipalities most affected by the changes include Blakely, Dickson City, Mayfield, Olyphant and Scranton, Donato said.

A meeting for municipal officials to discuss the flood plain changes also will be held today at 8:30 a.m. at the Lackawanna County 911 Center in Jessup.

Contact the writer:

[email protected];

570-348-9141;

@jhorvathTT on Twitterlackawannacounty.org/floodrisk

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