In flood insurance rate fight, banding with other states could help: Editorial

By The Editorial Board, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 

on October 25, 2013 at 7:40 AM

Frustrated by a lack of action in Congress, Louisiana lawmakers are looking to build a coalition with other states to push for a reprieve from excessive flood insurance premium increases. They should find plenty of kindred spirits. The drastic changes in the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act will be felt in hundreds of communities along our nation's coast and inland waterways.

At a hearing Wednesday in Baton Rouge, lawmakers got a briefing on the ramifications of the act and searched for ways to get more support in Congress for delaying the increases.

With 480,000 households participating in the flood insurance program, Louisiana ranks behind only Texas and Florida. Not all of those policyholders will see their rates spike, but some are facing 1,000 percent or even 3,000 percent increases.

This is not only a Gulf Coast issue, though. The ramifications of Biggert-Waters are already being felt in New York and New Jersey, where residents are recovering from Hurricane Sandy's deadly storm surge. And in Massachusetts, the Boston Globe reported last week that in coastal zones deemed by FEMA to be at high risk, premiums are going to skyrocket. One 27-unit condominium complex will see its annual premiums jump from $4,300 to $45,000 in the next year and then rise to an estimated $600,000 in subsequent years, the Globe reported. The condo association has never made a flood insurance claim.

"The premium is not reflective of the risk," a condo owner told the Globe. "Because we had weathered so many storms, we thought there must be an error."

South Louisianians understand that feeling all too well.

In some cases new FEMA flood maps didn't credit local or private levees and pumps that reduce flooding. That is a problem in St. Charles Parish and parts of Jefferson Parish, for example. Biggert-Waters also did away with the grandfather clause that used to protect property owners from rate hikes that are driven by changes in rules or new maps.

The loss of the grandfather clause could be devastating to tens of thousands of people in Louisiana and Mississippi who rebuilt, with FEMA's OK, after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. It's simply not fair to dramatically change the rules after the fact.

There is a sizable contingent in Congress who recognizes that and sees the potential economic damage to families and communities. But legislation to delay Biggert-Waters has yet to gain traction, despite the efforts of Louisiana's delegation and others.

Don Cravins, who is U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu's chief of staff, suggested at Wednesday's hearing that lawmakers and parish presidents should contact their counterparts in other states. That is a smart idea -- for legislators and Gov. Jindal's administration. Some members of Congress don't understand how many people will be affected and what the insurance hikes will do to home values.

"We have to tell people that this isn't some beachfront vacation destination. This is a working coast in Louisiana," Mr. Cravins said. And to keep the coast working, people have to be able to afford to live here and be able to buy or sell a home.

In St. Charles Parish, assessors are marking home values down 18 to 30 percent, officials said. Representatives from St. Bernard Parish told lawmakers that new home building has come to a halt because of fears about higher premiums.

Some residents across coastal Louisiana are seeing their premiums rise from a few hundred dollars to more than $10,000 this year. The situation is only going to get worse, as rates are ratcheted up for more property owners over the next four years.

Garrett Graves, director of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana, put things in perspective: "If you can't sell your house, you lose everything."

When Congress passed Biggert-Waters in 2012, no thought was given to whether residents would be able to afford the higher premiums. The talk was all about making the flood insurance program self-sustaining.

But putting an unbearable financial burden on coastal residents is not the way to do that. All of us -- from here to Maine -- need to band together to get that message across to Congress.