Jefferson Parish residents to get extra discount on flood insurance after new FEMA rating

After repeated flood insurance rate hikes, Jefferson Parish residents will soon see an extra 10% discount on the price of their policies, now that the parish has notched the best flood rating in the state, officials announced Wednesday.

Residents of unincorporated Jefferson Parish will receive a 35% flood insurance discount under the new Class 3 rating from the National Flood Insurance Program's Community Rating System, up from the current discount of 25% under the previous Class 5 rating.

Communities that implement flood mitigation measures, like storm-resilient building codes, building elevation requirements and watershed management plans, are eligible for greater discounts.

Jefferson officials estimate the program will save residents over $12 million a year on their flood policies.

"Not only will our residents and business owners see financial relief because of this Class 3 rating, but our community as a whole will continue to benefit from a comprehensive floodplain management and mitigation plan that helps make us more resilient in the face of disasters," Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng said in a statement.

Ratings across the metro area

Each class under the program comes with an incremental 5% flood insurance discount, starting with Class 10 at 0% and ending with Class 1 at a 45% insurance discount — which so far is only held by Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Roseville, California, according to April 2025 FEMA data.

Of Jefferson's municipalities, Gretna receives a 25% discount under the program, Kenner gets 20% and Jean Lafitte gets 15%, as of April. Harahan is enrolled in the program at Class 10, which is a 0% discount.

New Orleans residents receive a 15% discount, as do residents of unincorporated St. Tammany.

More than 1,500 communities nationwide participate in the program. Of those, only 11 local governments have the Class 3 designation, including Jefferson.

Rising costs

While the new rating will alleviate some of the cost to homeowners, individual flood insurance premiums will likely continue to increase under the NFIP's latest system for calculating flood insurance premiums, which considers factors like property elevation, structure type, and proximity to water, rather than solely relying on a property's flood zone. The system, called FEMA's Risk Rating 2.0, was created to make the program financially solvent and rates more equitable, according to federal officials.

But it has also meant steep price jumps for residents. Louisiana's average flood insurance costs are estimated to increase by 87% for single-family homes, and are being phased in increments of no more than 18% per year, according to FEMA data from August 2023.

In Jefferson Parish — which in 2022 represented about 20% of the state's policies — costs are estimated to increase by an average of 156%.

The ballooning totals have already proven too much to bear for some. More than 42,700 Louisiana residents, or 9% of policyholders, have dropped their flood insurance policies since 2022.

Critics say statewide efforts to bring down insurance costs through flood-proofing homes and other mitigation measures aren't moving at a fast enough pace to keep up with the growing number of flood-prone areas due to climate change, furthering a complex and unsustainable insurance crisis for Louisiana.