People in this Louisiana city will see a 25% discount on flood insurance as rates broadly rise

DAVID J. MITCHELL, The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.The Advocate

Central residents should get a 25% discount on their flood insurance premiums when bills go out next fall, city officials said.

The city received a better rating from the National Flood Insurance Program because of its storm water management and other measures designed to reduce flood risk in the East Baton Rouge Parish community.

Central just received a Class 5 rating from the flood insurance program, up two spots from its current one, city officials said. In 2024, only two governments in Louisiana shared that rating: Jefferson Parish and the city of Mandeville.

Central's 25% discount takes effect Oct. 1. The current discount for Central is 15%.

Despite the coming discounts, Central residents and business could still see an increase in flood insurance rates overall, albeit smaller than it might otherwise be, due to longer term changes in the federally subsidized insurance program.

Central, a city of 30,000, is bounded by the Amite and Comite rivers, crisscrossed by other waterways and was heavily hit by the August 2016 flood, which inundated tens of thousands of homes and businesses in the region and scarred a generation of residents.

Sixty percent of Central is in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's special flood hazard area. Such low-lying areas fall under special floodplain management regulations and mandatory flood insurance rules.

The better premiums for Central come as flood insurance costs are skyrocketing elsewhere after the National Flood Insurance Program shifted to its controversial Risk Rating 2.0 system to set rates.

In 2023, the Central area was expecting to see insurance increases well above most homes in the nation, phased in over several years. The neighborhoods around Central city hall, for instance, were anticipating a 114% increase over time, up to as much as $2,035 per policy owner, FEMA estimates show.

The National Flood Insurance Program has limited any one year's increase to no more than 18%. If that full increase occurs, Central residents could still see their premiums rise, despite the 10% improvement in their discount.

Earlier this week, Mayor Wade Evans and the city's consulting engineer, Stokka Brown, detailed city improvements in a meeting of the Amite River Basin Commission, which oversees flood control in several parishes.

Central's efforts include adopting new development rules, creating their own computer model to predict flood risk caused by new development, doing regular aerial imaging of the city's geography and creating a storm water management plan.

Central also improved maintenance of its network of drainage infrastructure and waterways and aggressively sought grants for that work, city officials added.

Evans, a former city councilman and a landscaper and contractor by trade, said the August 2016 flood was a catalyst for those improvements, which began under the previous administration and continued in his.

The flood hit 60% of the city's structures and contributed to Evans' own rising interest in local government.

The flood changed my life in many ways. When ... you cart your children out of your house in a Rubbermaid bin to get them to a boat, it changes your outlook," Evans said. "And I can empathize with the citizens who are ultimately scarred with because of that flood. There are people who really have fears."

The city's new, real-time flood forecasting website is called Early FloWS. The online mapping program combines various rain and weather forecasts, river gauge data and other information to produce real time estimates of water levels at selected bridges, highways and other locations across the city, Central officials said.

Central now has its own hydrology equipment in place at every bridge crossing in the city's various watersheds, Evans said. The equipment was bought with funding from the President Biden-era American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion COVID stimulus program.

"So, Ms. Smith, who sits and worries every time we have a bad rainfall, can put herself at ease to see that water is not projected to even get this close to the street or whatever, Evans said.

Evans said he hopes the forecasting work could lead to a further reduction in the city's flood insurance classification, potentially in a year.

Central's work drew interest from members of the Amite commission, including Ascension Parish President Clint Cointment and state highway official Ed Knight.

Cointment explained that his parish is looking at a similar flood forecasting system and asked how the Central system uses rain forecasts and actual rain data.

Knight, deputy assistant secretary for public works, asked how the city's flooding model used for development review could be applied statewide or across the entire Amite River Basin.

Brown, Central's consultant, said the city's model couldn't be directly expanded across such large areas. That would likely require several models covering smaller areas, Brown noted.