New Flood Map Doubles Number Of Homeowners Who Need Flood Insurance
EL PASO, TX – The City Council unveiled the first digital flood insurance rates at Tuesday’s meeting – and the news is not good for thousands of El Paso homeowners.
The extensive new changes in the map will hit residents directly in their wallets.
In 2006, close to 23,000 parcels in the city were in the flood plain and were required to have flood insurance. This year, the new maps placed an additional 27,000 parcels in the flood plain, bringing the total of homes and businesses that will be required to have flood insurance to about $50,000.
Flood insurance on a home worth $100,000 can cost between $400 and $800 dollars per year, according to a flood insurance agent the ABC-7 I-TEAM spoke with.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency implemented the changes after evaluating damage in the wake of STORM 2006. More than 1,500 homes were damaged and 300 completely destroyed as a result of the storm. “Federal law requires anyone with a mortgage to assure that a home has flood insurance if it’s in the flood plain,” said Alan Shubert, the city’s Flood Plain Administrator.
Shubert said the city is doing all it can to cushion the blow. Some of the new areas added to the new map may be evaluated again andthen betaken off the map, he said.
Mayor John Cook tells ABC-7 the change will have a deep impact on El Paso. “When you’re doubling the number of people paying flood insurance, it is a significant impact to the community,” he said.
“Do you think a lot of people here have flood insurance in this neighborhood? We live in a desert, of course not… none of the people in El Paso have flood insurance,” said one resident whose home now lies in the flood plain as a result of the new map.
