Flood insurance rates drop 5% for Quincy homeowners

QUINCY -- Homeowners will start to see a little relief on their flood insurance premiums thanks to the city's efforts to ramp up flood-protection planning and infrastructure, Mayor Thomas Koch announced on Monday.

Residents in flood zones will see a 5 percent reduction in their flood insurance bills after the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which manages the federal flood insurance program, said it is upgrading Quincy from a Class 8 to a Class 7 on the National Flood Insurance Program's community rating system. There are 10 classes, with 1 being the best.

The reduction in premiums will save the nearly 4,000 homeowners across the city who live and flood zones and who are legally required to pay for flood insurance about $150 per year on average.

"This is a great step forward for our community that was years in the making. This cost-savings for residents in the flood zone is a direct result of prioritizing flood-relief projects and working directly with our residents on navigating the complicated process of flood insurance and all of its related issues," Mayor Koch said in a statement. "I am grateful for the incredibly hard work of our department of public works, our engineering division and our private partners at Woodard & Curran for making this a reality.

The discount, however small, is a welcome change for residents like Karen Albanese who were forced out of their homes in March 2018 during the last spate of storms that caused major flood damage to dozens of coastal homes around Quincy.

"I think it's great. Any discount is better than nothing," Albanese said. The first floor of her shoreline cottage was badly damaged in the storms and Albanese is still waiting for a payout to rebuild after she was forced to rip out her flooring, appliances and cabinetry.

Albanese and about a half dozen of her neighbors are still unable to move back into their homes that suffered massive flood damages in the storms 18 months ago, but they are required to carry flood insurance on the properties anyway if they have a mortgage.

Christopher Walker, Koch's chief of staff, said the rating upgrade was years in the making and only five other Massachusetts communities have achieved Level 7 status.

"No city or town in Massachusetts has a higher rating," he said.

The upgrade is the result of infrastructure improvements like drainage work around Furnace Brook as well as the city's handling of the flood map revision process, Walker said.

The city contracted Woodard & Curran to provide homeowners with elevation certificates that helped to determine which flood zone residents should be a part of, if at all, in the revised maps.

June is the first full month this lowered rate class will impact policies, and the city suggests policy holders contact their individual insurance agencies as policy renewals approach.The community rating system is a voluntary program that recognizes and encourages community floodplain management activities that exceed the national flood insurance plan's minimum standards. The most at-risk flood zones, classified as Level 10, have the highest insurance policy rates. Each step down from rate Class 10 gives homeowners a 5 percent break on their premiums. Quincy is now at a Level 7, meaning residents living in Quincy's flood zone are receiving a total 15 percent reduction in insurance premiums.

Walker said there a lot of major infrastructure projects like replacing several miles of seawalls along Adams Shore into Merrymount and replacing aging pumping stations, that could earn further reductions in premiums in the future.

"We're going to keep going," he said. "A big part of our capital investments going forward are these flood relief projects."

Reach Erin Tiernan at [email protected] or 617-786-7320. Follow her on Twitter @ErinTiernan.

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