FEMA hosts meeting on flood mapping in Reedsport

March 21-- Mar. 21--REEDSPORT -- Around 80 people packed the room in the Reedsport Community Center last Tuesday to learn more about how the Federal Emergency Management Agency's changes to flood mapping will impact them.

In Reedsport, there were no net changes in the amount of homeowners included in the flood-prone area, according to Ryan Ike, spokesperson for FEMA region 10.

He said the previous mapping, which used data collected in the 1970's, counted 24 structures in the 100-year floodplain. Now there are 20.

Ike said the LIDAR mapping done a few years ago was able to tighten up some of the boundary lines and pinpoint which structures were in and which were out.

City Manager Jonathan Wright said there were a lot of people at last Tuesday's meeting that already knew they were in the floodplain, even if the area hadn't previously been mapped in.

"I don't think there was a whole lot of shock, I think people were just trying to get answers," Wright said.

He said the city has known the changes were coming for the last two years.

Reedsport's downtown area -- which has seen substantial revitalization in the past few years -- has been excluded from hiked insurance rates because of the efforts it has made to certify the levee, which protects the city from river and ocean flooding.

The levee was provisionally accredited by FEMA in 2007. But four years ago, Wright said the city wasn't sure if its downtown was going to be included in the flood hazard area revision or not.

"If these 550 properties are mapped with levee property, it would be roughly $1.5 million in insurance costs," Wright said.

The city has been working toward accreditation incrementally. Wright said the city needs to do $6 million worth of improvements before it can meet the requirements for certification. One of those improvements include raising the levee three feet above the 100-year floodplain.

"We have adequate height for a 100-year event, we just don't meet FEMA's standards for a 100-year event," Wright said.

Ike said FEMA has been comfortable keeping the levee provisionally accredited while the city works to get grants to achieve its full accreditation goal.

"As far as our engineering team is concerned we understand that accrediting a levee can be a challenge and can be expensive," Ike said.

The levee was originally built in 1968 after a December 1964 rainstorm inundated coastal rivers and caused homes to be destroyed or severely damaged.

The event was called "the most severe rainstorm to ever occur over central Oregon, and among the most severe over western Oregon since the late 1870s," according a top ten weather events of the 1900's list made by the National Weather Service forecast office in Portland. (https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr/paststorms/index.php#top5)

Wright said the city has been maintaining the Army Corps of Engineers-built structure since its completion, but there are aging parts that need to be upgraded.

"We're going to continue to write grants with the goal of being certified sooner than later," Wright said.

The maps will go into a 90-day appeal period in May, for any technical scientific information to be submitted to the agency. For example, residents can write in if they have a elevation certification that differs from the current mapping.

The map changes can be seen online at FEMA's website (http://fema.maps.arcgis.com/apps/StorytellingSwipe/index.html?appid=780ade4647d84a2399fd505cd87ec32f)

After the appeal period is over, FEMA will issue a letter of final determination. When that is issued, the city and county will have six months to adopt the changes and the maps become effective. FEMA anticipates the changes to go into effect by mid- 2020.

Once the new flood maps are adopted, they will dictate flood insurance prices for federally-backed mortgages and inform land use and development decisions.

Reporter Jillian Ward can be reached at 541-269-1222, ext. 235, or by email at jillian.ward@theworldlink.com. Follow her on Twitter: @JE_Wardwriter.

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