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LSU Researchers to Gather Data About Flood Insurance Maps in Slidell, Mandeville
St. Tammany Parish is questioning whether or not the flood insurance survey maps, which ultimately determine what flood insurance rates will be be for all areas of St. Tammany Parish are accurate. In 2009, St. Tammany Parish rejected a proposed flood insurance map, and they are now polling random resident homeowners in St. Tammany Parish, specifically Mandeville and Slidell, as to whether or not the rates/values of their flood insurance plans are up to par. Also, the survey is trying to determine the cultural and economic impacts of the flood insurance policies and if the rates and structures of the policies are working for current homeowners in Mandeville, Louisiana and Slidell, LA. Results will determine how the insurance rate structure will be in the future of St. Tammany Parish.
LSU Researchers to Gather Data About Flood Insurance Maps in Slidell, Mandeville
Researchers from LSU's Disaster Science and Management Program will be in Slidell and Mandeville on Sunday and Monday to survey residents on the impact of new flood insurance rate maps.
Business and homeowners in randomly selected neighborhoods will receive a mail-in questionnaire on their experiences with flood insurance and flood map changes, said Melanie Gall, the study's principal investigator.
Gall said specific survey areas have not been decided upon yet but will consist of 1,200 homes and businesses.
The survey is part of an ongoing study titled "Changing Flood Mitigation: The Consequences of New Flood Insurance Rate Maps on Louisiana Coastal Communities."
According to Gall, the survey will ask participants how they feel about the new rates and flood insurance maps and how their property has been affected.
Gall said the study looks at the social and economic impact recent flood insurance rate map changes have had on coastal communities as well as make suggestions for a more efficient flood insurance plan.
"The National Flood Insurance Program is $18 billion in the red," Gall said. "We've heard of communities saying (insurance rates) will ruin us and there is a need to reform the program, but how?"
The study began in February 2010 and will continue until February 2012. The project's general findings will be shared at a public meeting at the end of the study's run.
According to Gall, the past year has been spent studying flood information and surveying residents in Cameron, Calcasieu, Lafourche, Livingston, St. Tammany and Vermilion parishes. Data collection will be completed in May.
The study grew out of questions that arose from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Flood Insurance Program's remapping of flood zones that lasted from 2003 to 2010, and what this could mean for homeowners in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Gall said.
According to Jude Egan, co-investigator for the project, the remapping placed homeowners who had previously not been in high-risk flood zones into these areas and raised flood insurance rates and construction requirements.
"This study is not 'if,'" Egan said. "It's 'what' are the impacts, what are the economic, what are the cultural consequences."
Egan said FEMA mandated that parish governments adopt new flood insurance maps, but several parishes have appealed accepting the maps on grounds that there were errors in the maps.
In 2009, St. Tammany Parish appealed its flood insurance rate maps proposed by FEMA on grounds that they were not accurate. The maps have not been accepted yet, as parish surveyors check for map accuracy and negotiate with FEMA, parish government spokesman Tom Beale said.
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