U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill and 26 of her colleagues this week urged the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) to help protect Missourians from skyrocketing flood insurance rates through changes to the Flood Map Modernization Program. In a letter to FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, the bipartisan group of senators asked the agency to change its policy regarding uncertified levees when calculating who is required to buy federal flood insurance, shielding Missourians who live in high-risk flood zones from rising insurance costs.
“We support FEMA’s efforts to maximize taxpayer dollars by choosing simpler, more cost effective modeling techniques when appropriate,” the senators wrote. “However, in cases where FEMA treats a flood control structure as if it has been completely wiped off the map, we may be unnecessarily devaluing property and hurting the economies of cities, towns, counties and businesses.”
In this letter, the senators said they believe FEMA has the capabilities to acknowledge that some levees provide a level of protection, and they shouldn’t be ignored. The senators added that with the nation still recovering from the worst economic downturn in 80 years, sticking with such a simplified mapping program could suppress some Americans’ property values and slow the financial recovery. Read the full letter here.
Last March, McCaskill also signed a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expressing similar concerns about the accuracy of the mapping process. That letter is available here.
No comments:
Post a Comment