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McIntyre lashes out at effects of flood insurance bill
John Gerber, with the N.C. Division of Emergency Management Floodplain Mapping Program, speaks at the N.C. Beach, Inlet & Waterway Association annual conference Monday, at the Blockade Runner in Wrightsville Beach.
Photo by Mike SpencerPublished: Monday, November 18, 2013 at 5:26 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, November 18, 2013 at 5:26 p.m.
U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre lashed out Monday at the effects of a controversial federal flood insurance bill, saying it unfairly targets coastal residents with dramatically higher premiums.
McIntyre, D-N.C., said the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 was meant to sustain the future of a federal flood insurance program that is nearly $24 billion in the red, but that its implementation by the Federal Emergency Management Agency has become an example of “bureaucracy run amok.”
McIntyre, who represents much of Southeastern North Carolina, spoke at the annual conference of the N.C. Beach Inlet & Waterway Association at the Blockade Runner resort in Wrightsville Beach. The conference had just finished a more than two-hour roundtable discussion on the flood act, its complexity and effects before the Lumberton congressman spoke.
The law, spawned by enormous losses the federal plan suffered inHurricane Katrina, has gone into effect and homes built before flood maps were first drawn in the 1970s are being hit with increases in some instances of tens of thousands of dollars a year to an individual homeowner.
McIntyre is a co-sponsor of a bill before the House Financial Services Committee that would seek to delay further implementation of the bill and would push FEMA to do an affordability study of the law that Congress “would be able to look at and assess whether the study is accurate,” said Andrew Simpson, N.C. executive assistant for McIntyre.
U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., who also represents parts of Southastern North Carolina, is another co-sponsor of the legislation.
McIntyre said that provisions for the affordability study were included in the original bill.
Another aim of the bill, called the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, would be to make sure that redrawing of flood zone maps be a transparent process. The bill would make sure that the flood maps are being drawn accurately and not with the intention of including more people in the zones in order to balance the books, Simpson said.
“The congressman wants to make sure that there is a transparent process in who is included in the flood zones, how the flood zones are being remapped and that FEMA is considering affordability in the way it revamps the program.” Simpson said.
The bill, introduced two weeks ago, has bipartisan support, including that of committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, and ranking Democratic member Maxine Waters, D-Calif,, who co-authored the original bill and who now wants it changed, McIntyre said.
McIntyre said there could be action on the bill by year-end, but he urged the crowd to reach out to people who live away from the coast – lawmakers, friends, family – to get the message out.
Proposed new flood zone maps for New Hanover and Brunswick counties are set to come out in spring 2014.
Before McIntyre's speech, the association heard from a panel of experts who spoke about the effects of the Biggert-Waters Act and how they would differ widely, depending on when a building was built, how it was built and where.
The audience, many of whom were representatives of local governments, heard that enormous premiums can be cut somewhat not only by altering the structure – opening up enclosed ground floor space, for example – but also by municipal flood-mitigation measures.
Only the federal government is in the flood insurance business, the private sector having dropped out years ago because of high risk. The policies, however, are administered by insurance agencies.
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