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6 REQUIREMENTS OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES Floodplain regulation, notification of residents, predisaster warning, and evacuation planning are responsibilities of local communities, generally cities and counties. This chapter recommends management and planning activities that FEMA should require of those communities to be eligible for the recommended recognitions for levee-protected areas. FLOODPLAIN REGULATIONS Levee construction supports urban development in the floodplain by reducing average annual damages to highways, airports, shopping centers, industrial plants, and single- and multifamily housing. However, it is short-sighted and foolish to regard even the most reliable levee system as fail-safe. Floods exceeding the design stage will occur periodically. Structural failure or overtopping can also be associated with poor maintenance, temporary damming caused by debris accumulation at a downstream bridge opening, or human error in the operation of pumps and levee closures. Consequently, developments in levee-protected areas are still vulnerable to flood damages. Therefore, it is important that FEMA's policy on levees include requirements for floodplain regulations commensurate with the residual risk. It is also important that actual implementation of the programs be compatible with the objectives of the National Flood Insurance Program. Specifically, with respect to floodplain management formal agreements between the political entity (community) having responsibility for local land use control and the FEMA may be desirable. Floodplain regulation includes certain land-use management and building construction provisions which FEMA may require of communities to minimize the exposure of occupants of levee-protected areas to the probability of flooding. The committee's recommendations are made in a broad sense and do not address details such as construction methods, flood-proofing techniques, etc. that have been developed and generally adopted for flood-prone lands not protected by levees. Numerous documents are available on this general topic. -28-
Section 60.3C of the NFIP Rules and Regulations (44 CFR, Parts 59 and 60) lists current requirements for protecting new construction from flood damage. Residential buildings must be elevated above the 100-year flood level, and nonresidential buildings must be elevated above or flood-proofed to the 100-year flood level. These rules should be enforced in all areas behind levees that are not judged adequate for containing the 100-year flood (A1-A30 and AL zones). A minority opinion on this topic is in Appendix D. The committee recommends: ⢠FEMA should require the elevation of new residential structures and the elevation or flood-proofing of other new buildings in all areas protected by levees unable to contain the 100-year flood (see Table 1). On the other hand, the committee believes that buildings protected by 100-year or greater levees need not be elevated, other than as necessary to be above the 100-year flood associated with interior drainage flooding and ponding. The majority of the committee feels that levees meeting the engineering criteria (including freeboard) delineated in Chapter 3 and the operation and maintenance criteria of Chapter 5 provide sufficient protection so that building elevation or flood-proofing need not be mandatory. To require elevating these buildings (some places by as much as 20 feet) would be too severe, given the fact that FEMA does not require protection of new buildings in other areas not subject to the 100-year flood level. Such a new requirement may pose a financial burden to individuals and communities, would in many cases cause communities to withdraw from the NFIP and could thus be counterproductive to flood loss reduction goals. Implementation of initiatives by FEMA to effect insurance rates that reflect actuarial risk to all properties, including those in levee-protected areas, would reduce the financial burden to the general taxpayer, and required contingency planning should provide occupant safety. However, it is critical, before accepting an area behind such a levee as indeed secure at the 100-year level of protection, that checks be made of the entire levee system with respect to design standards, and adequate operation and maintenance and that the 100-year flood stage has not changed so as to threaten levee safety. Appendix D contains a counter argument for elevating or flood-proofing buildings in these areas but considered by the majority of the committee as less persuasive. FLOOD INSURANCE PURCHASE The committee recommends: ⢠FEMA should require purchase of flood insurance in all areas where the ground is lower than the unconfined 100-year flood level -29-
except where protected by a levee built to contain the 500-year flood (see Table 1). Areas within the natural floodplain behind a greater-than-100-year levee are presently designated Zone 8 under the FEMA Interim Levee Policy. This classification removes such areas from mandatory-flood insurance purchase under Section 102 of the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973. Zone B designation also removes such areas from application of floodplain management restriction under NFIP (although state and local authorities may regulate such areas independently of NFIP). However, the commitee views all levees as potentially subject to failure, due to floods exceeding their design capacities, inherent uncertainties in design and construction, undetected deterioration, or human error in operation. Consequently it is recommended that flood insurance purchase be mandatory in the 100-year natural floodplain in areas behind levees unable to contain the 500-year flood. This would reinforce public recognition that such areas are only artificially removed from natural floodplains. This position is further based on the following considerations: 1. For levee systems the combined risk from hydrologic and geotechnical factors can not be quantified with the precision common to other familiar engineered structures and therefore is not entirely accounted for in the stated level of protection. 2. In event of overtopping or other levee failure, substantial loss will result. Insurance coverage for the damaged property will reduce disaster relief and tax write-off costs to the federal government. 3. Mandatory purchase and renewal of insurance serve as an annual notification to property owners that their property is in a natural floodplain and subject to catastrophic flooding. 4. Actuarial rates in areas behind a 100-year-plus levee would be low, because of the infrequency of flooding, thus not posing an unreasonable burden on the property owners. The committee's recommendation for mandatory purchase of flood insurance contrasts with its position on floodplain regulations in these areas. The committee believes that some restriction or reminder of danger is advisable for such lands because the risk of major damage over the life of a typical mortgage is considerable. Less economic burden is imposed in requiring insurance purchase than in requiring elevating residences and flood proofing other buildings. Additionally, floodplain restrictions can be imposed by state and local governments, whereas insurance purchase requirements cannot. Since property on ground higher than the 100-year flood level and property protected by a 500-year flood levee are safe from the 100-year flood, an insurance purchase requirement for buildings in such areas would exceed established NFIP policy. Furthermore, with implementation of the recommendations of this report, residents of those areas will still be notified that they could be flooded in the -30-
event of levee failure, and insurance is always available for them. Counter arguments on this subject are in Appendix D. CRITICAL FACILITIES Executive Order 11988 limits approval of critical facilities in 500-year floodplains to situations in which certain steps have been followed to assure that there is no practical alternative. A "critical facility" is defined as any facility, from a hospital to a natural gas terminal, whose flooding and discontinuity of service would create untoward hardship and/or danger for the community as a whole. FEMA, as a federal agency, should seek to amend Section 60.3 to comply with the Executive Order. FEMA should require regulation of critical facilities in areas protected by levees where the ground is lower than the 500-year flood level. These regulations should prohibit critical facilities (not already regulated by some higher level of government) unless there is no practical alternative and should clearly delineate that the assurances required to demonstrate that there is no practical alternative (placement outside the 500-year floodplain would be prohibitively costly or even greater hardship for the community being served) and the flood-proofing provisions made. The committee recommends: ⢠Communities should regulate the placement of critical facilities (not regulated by some higher level of government) in all leveed areas in accordance with the procedures of Executive Order 11988 (see Table 1). NOTICE TO RESIDENTS Areas protected from flooding by levees should be displayed on the various NFIP maps and designated as such using procedures set forth in Chapter 9. The committee recommends: ⢠Owners, tenants, and lenders occupying areas designated as protected by levees should be notified periodically by responsible local officials that their land in the levee-protected area is still subject to flooding in the event of levee failure (see Table 1). It is believed that this would be a good policy with even the safest of levees. The notification should contain information on the availability and cost of flood insurance, floodplain management regulations, and evacuation routes. -31-
There is currently no procedure to tell residents that they are in a floodplain. The current procedure for advising people of a property's flood hazard is implemented by lending agencies only at the time of a mortgage, home improvement loan, or federal disaster assistance. This procedure does not help renters or people who have lived in the area for a long time. NFIP maps must designate the areas as "A Zones" for the lenders to become involved. Therefore, the above new procedure is recommended. When FEMA informs a community that its maps are being reevaluated with respect to recognition of levee protection levels according to the new criteria, FEMA should also advise the community of the requirement for notification to residents. Compliance would be checked as part of the annual O&M certification. Communities should be given reasonable flexibility in timing and designing their notification program. Regional FEMA offices and state NFIP coordinators are urged to cooperate in preparing model programs. ADOPTION OF A PREDISASTER WARNING AND EVACUATION PLAN The committee recommends: ⢠Local officials of any NFIP participating community protected by a levee, regardless of its size and reliability, should prepare and promulgate an action plan for warning and evacuation in the event of levee failure. The warning and evacuation plan to satisfy this recommended FEMA requirement must alert a community's populace that conditions which could cause levee failure are developing, provide warning to people in the area behind the levee should failure become imminent, identify evacuation routes and police procedures for expediting evacuation, arrange temporary shelter and food for evacuees, and assure the maintenance of law and order in the flooded area. The plan should reflect local conditions and needs; it is particularly important that the right audience be identified and that information be communicated in a clear and credible fashion. The program should be designed to encourage'social reinforcement at the local level. Warning and evacuation plans should provide information at various levels of danger, for example: when water surfaces reach levee base elevations, when overtopping appears inevitable, and when overtopping/breaching has occurred. The probable potential rate of levee failure and water movement through the floodplain are important and should be estimated because they have a bearing on the development of alternate evacuation routes. -32-
