Flood insurance relief might be on the way

May 26--HENDERSON, Ky. -- Good news might be on the way for some people with property along Canoe Creek who pay a lot for flood insurance.

The millions of dollars spent in recent years to reduce flooding along the creek might have done enough good to rewrite federal flood insurance maps, removing some homes and businesses from the 100-year floodplain.

That could minimize or even eliminate the need for affected property owners to buy flood insurance, which can be expensive.

"I talked to a guy who said he pays more for flood insurance than house insurance," said Tom Williams, general manager of Henderson Water Utilities and a member of the Henderson City-County Flood Mitigation Board, during a board meeting Tuesday.

Assistant City Manager Buzzy Newman, who chairs the flood board, said he and city-county GIS analyst Brian Bishop met last week with representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- which is in charge of the nation's floodplain management -- and the news was encouraging.

Bishop said property along the North Fork of Canoe Creek from Fifth Street south to Clay Street -- or even as far south as Kentucky 136 -- could be coming out of the 100-year floodplain, the area for which banks and other lenders typically require a mortgage customer to buy flood insurance. (The 100-year floodplain is the area in which there is a 1-percent likelihood in any given year that flooding will occur.)

That area includes such historically flood-prone places as Eastgate Shopping Center, Franklin Street and the Lakeland and Cooper Park subdivisions.

Bishop said new floodplain "panels" -- maps for certain portions of the county -- "hopefully" will "become effective in early 2016."

"There should be some real happy people in this community when all is said and done," Newman said. "This is very positive."

What's making this possible is work done by the board over the past several years to remove fallen trees and other snags that have slowed drainage along Canoe Creek as well as dredging to widen and deepen the creek, allowing it to hold more water during storms without spilling over into adjoining property.

That has been followed by a painstaking efforts and the hiring of engineering and computer modeling consultants to prepare data to document the improvements to FEMA.

Last week's face-to-face meeting with FEMA representatives proved more fruitful than past telephone conversations, Newman said.

Among the steps in the process will be another public hearing, probably in about six months, to discuss the matter with citizens, particularly those with property affected by the changes.

It's possible that some new property will wind up going into the 100-year floodplain, but Bishop said that's primarily farmland, not homes or businesses for which flood insurance might be necessary.

"We know it's been a long time in coming, but that's FEMA," Newman said.

In other matters:

Cut-through: Computer modeling indicates that a proposed dredging of the silted-in Elam Ditch cut-through south of Henderson wouldn't yield much benefit, lowering stormwater levels by only a half-inch or so.

"I thought it would be a couple of feet," board member Jim Vincent said.

"I thought it would be a foot," Newman said. "A foot would make a lot of difference."

But reducing creek levels by only a half-inch probably doesn't warrant the estimated $750,000 cost of dredging and acquiring construction easements from property owners, he said.

"I'm somewhat quite surprised by" the finding of the computer modeling, Newman said.

The board voted unanimously to shelve the project for now.

Executive session: The board went into closed session to discuss the possible purchase of land in the area of U.S. 60-West, Borax Drive and Ohio Drive, but didn't expect to come back into open session to take any action.

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