Common sense surfaces
Sound argument convinces FEMA that South Buffalo flood rules were flawed
Updated: 09/30/08 6:43 AM
The owners of some 2,400 properties in South Buffalo should be getting a long-overdue break in the high cost of ownership. The federal agency in charge of such things has, after decades of effort by local officials and activists, agreed that those lots are not susceptible to the kind of catastrophic flooding that leads to the required purchase of flood insurance by property owners.
At a cost ranging from $600 to $1,800 per property, the premiums required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency were a burden that could be heavier than the cost of normal homeowners insurance.
Adding insult to injury was the fact that those buying the insurance were highly unlikely to ever have a claim they could collect on. While the houses in question might, like many others, suffer from basement flooding in times of severe storms, they were almost sure to never be socked by the kind of flooding that flows into a first-floor window, which is the minimum size of flood necessary for federal flood insurance to kick in.
Local officials, with pressure added by Rep. Brian Higgins and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, joined with individuals and experts to wear down FEMA’s old view of the neighborhood and replace it with a new one. That lobbying effort was only proper after the expenditure of millions of dollars in Buffalo area flood-control projects around Cazenovia Creek over the last 30 years.
But even Higgins didn’t try to attribute the change to his clout in Washington. It was, he said, a long process of marshaling the relevant facts and figures so that FEMA would see the wisdom, not just the desire, behind the residents’ claims.
Last week, those efforts bore fruit, as the Buffalo Common Council approved a new flood zone map that shrinks the number of homes in the insurance-requiring zone by some 2,200, down to less than 540.
When, as is now expected, the federal government also approves that map, the pact will cut insurance costs, and likely increase property values, for affected homes that will no longer have the scarlet letter of “flood-prone” undeservedly burdening their reputation.
