Editorial l SWFWMD to host open house to discuss flood prone areas

More often than not, if you live in Citrus County and you have a mortgage, you have a flood insurance premium to go with it. That's because of a couple of reasons: we live in an area where hurricanes, tropical storms and proximity to the Gulf and Lake systems provide the potential for disaster due to ground saturation and flooding.

Another reason is because of natural rainfall saturating the ground and causing flooding. Frankly, there's little difference to a homeowner whether it's natural rainfall or some other issue that Mother Nature created. A disaster is a disaster

The Southwest Florida Water Management District, commonly referred to as SWFWMD, is planning an open house for residents Wednesday, June 29, in order to provide information concerning preliminary flood prone areas as well as gather information that will eventually wind its way to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA's responsibilities include disaster preparedness among other obligations. But let's not put the cart before the horse.

SWFWMD has good intentions. The open house will have a project manager available to share timelines for final designation of floodplains as well as to gather information from citizens in order to discover if there are other areas of concern the agency hasn't considered. There's also an interactive map on SWFWMD's website so that residents can drill down to determine their property's flood risk, which relates to the real elephant in the room, insurance rates.

Flood insurance in Florida has a wide range of costs, with a low of around $390 per year to more than $900. Homeowners can purchase flood insurance from companies associated with the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). An average Floridan's rate is about $560 annually.

But back to SWFWMD's open house. It's a good idea, but we feel that the agency could expand communication efforts. Some folks might not be able to attend the event. Residents can enter comments through the SWFWMD website, but even savvy computer geeks could find it challenging to navigate and understand the information. This might lead to frustration, with homeowners throwing their hands in the air and forgetting about the importance of this issue.

So, we feel additional communication avenues should be explored. Old fashioned door knocking could be helpful, though the resources — bodies to do the knocking — might limit this to higher risk flood plain areas. Paper door hangers are another means, as are targeted neighborhood meetings in areas identified in the past at a high risk for flooding. But it's not all up to SWFWMD.

Residents have some responsibility also in order to contribute their property information to help ensure as accurate a database as possible. We urge everyone to jump aboard this wagon so that factual information is entered and finalized so that insurance rates are fair and the individual residential potential for flooding is as accurate as possible.