FEMA reassesses Cumberland, York counties flood risk
The Federal Emergency Management Administration yesterday released a revised look at flood risks in York and Cumberland counties, a reassessment that could raise flood insurance costs and restrict the ability to develop in certain areas.
The federal agency released the preliminary maps Tuesday. Bob O’Brien, a South Portland insurance broker, told the Portland Press Herald that property owners who moved into “special hazard zones” could increase their flood risk five to 10 times, a risk assessment that could boost flood insurance costs for a still unknown number of homeowners.
Following the release Tuesday, municipalities and individual property owners will have 90 days to appeal maps that they feel overstates their flood risk.
The release of the new maps also coincides with changes to federal law around flood insurance, which the federal government has subsidized. Increasingly frequent and severe storms, like Hurricane Sandy, have ballooned the debt of the national flood insurance program to nearly $25 billion. The changes from the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act aims to slowly bring all property owners to pay rates reflecting their full flood risk. Part of that effort includes doing away with the transfer of subsidized flood insurance rates for homes built before FEMA’s first flood risk maps were created. That means homes sold in flood risk areas will come with insurance costs reflecting their full risk, which could have an impact on the market for coastal and riverside real estate in Maine.
In total, there are nearly 7,000 flood insurance policyholders in Maine, 3,319 of whom have federally subsidized rates, according to FEMA.
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