FEMA to require new flood insurance on thousands of Lafayette Parish properties
About 4,500 additional properties are deemed to be in areas with a 1 percent chance of flooding in any given year, city-parish officials told reporters Wednesday. Owners of these properties will be required to purchase coverage through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private insurer providing equivalent coverage, unless they own the properties outright with no mortgage.
City-parish officials will host three community meetings this month to help affected property owners understand the new requirements. All are scheduled for
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The total number of properties in the parish required to carry flood insurance will remain about the same, since a roughly equal number have been removed from "Special Flood Hazard Areas" that the
The city-parish flood plain administrator,
The properties added to the hazard areas are mostly concentrated to somewhat recently developed areas to the west, south and north of
"The risk has always been there," she said. "Now it's just being identified."
The inclusion of these areas reflects
Pralle found that the unpleasant surprise of the new insurance costs often causes political pressure that can ultimately lead to map revisions that underestimate flood exposure.
Failure to incorporate predictions of future weather patterns are another way that
Weeks said the newly revised maps for
"The flood plain would increase, absolutely," Weeks said.
The 50-year-old national insurance program was created to help homeowners in flood-prone areas to offset the dearth of policies on the private market. The program today provides about
The program's authorization was extended in July amid long-term sustainability concerns, which were exacerbated by nearly
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