Communities have a big stake in flood maps

All municipalities in St. Mary Parish will adopt their revised digital flood insurance rate maps by April in order to allow residents in areas such as Amelia to see their base flood elevations drop for building purposes.
But adoption for Morgan City and Siracusaville and Berwick to Calumet will just be a formality so other areas can reap the benefits of the revised maps. The areas from Morgan City to Calumet will be secluded in the maps and will continue to use the maps they currently use to determine flood insurance rates.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency sent a letter dated Oct. 19 to St. Mary Parish government for the unincorporated areas of the parish and each of the five municipalities within the parish. Each municipality must adopt the new maps in the form of an ordinance and amend the current flood damage prevention ordinance by April 19, St. Mary Parish Chief Administrative Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange said.
The goals of levee certification are to ensure that property owners’ flood insurance rates don’t skyrocket due to the new flood insurance maps and for people to be required to build only to the minimum elevation to get 100-year hurricane storm surge protection, he said.
FEMA will eventually require all areas in the parish to use the 2008 maps for levee certification but hasn’t done so yet.
The letters stated that FEMA had finished preparing the parish’s revised flood maps that show the base flood elevations property owners are required to build to withstand a 100-year hurricane storm surge event.
A 100-year event is one that has a 1 percent chance of occurring in “any given year,” LaGrange said.
The revised maps were originally issued in 2008. But none of the municipalities in St. Mary Parish were able to adopt the maps because Morgan City appealed the maps due to drastic increases in its base flood elevations.
However, within the past couple of years, FEMA introduced its seclusion principle, which allows some parts of a parish to adopt new flood maps while others are secluded from the new maps.
In 2015, St. Mary Levee District officials fixed minor 1-foot to 2-foot deficiencies in sections of the Wax Lake East levees, which protect Berwick to Calumet. Leaders just need a letter of map amendment from FEMA to officially certify those levees, LaGrange said.
Property owners with-in flood hazard zones, or 100-year flood plains, in Amelia will receive an average of about a 4-foot reduction in the base flood elevations they’re required to build to in order to receive parish building permits, LaGrange said. Property outside the flood hazard zone doesn’t have to meet a certain elevation to get a permit, he said.
“Areas that you may have had to meet minimum base flood elevation requirements before are now outside of the 100-year flood plain based on the new flood study,” he said.
For flood insurance purposes, people building structures in a flood hazard zone pay a flood insurance premium based on the base flood elevation. Insurance rates greatly increase for each foot a structure is below the base flood elevation, while building above the minimum requirement gives property owners a discount on their insurance, LaGrange said.
Coastal community Cypremort Point saw its base flood elevations decreased by about 5 feet. Burns Point also saw a drop in its elevations.
Residents from Calumet to Berwick should see only minor changes, and in some places, virtually no changes to their base flood elevations from the 1996 to the 2008 maps that determine flood insurance rates, LaGrange said.
Berwick Mayor Louis Ratcliff said the Corps has already accredited the levees, but FEMA approval is still required. Berwick’s maps are basically the same as its current maps, Planning and Zoning Director Gary Beadle said.
Beadle expects Berwick will receive the final letter saying its levees are certified by April 19.
Patterson Community Affairs Director Ryan Aucoin said the revised flood maps show some “very minor” changes for Patterson but are mostly the same as the maps currently being used.
Parish leaders are in the process of requesting a letter of map amendment to reflect that those levees have been certified, LaGrange said.
St. Mary Parish, Ber-wick and Patterson officials will likely jointly request a letter of map amendment for the levee stretch from Calumet to Berwick, LaGrange said.
There were no major base flood elevation changes for property owners to build to in the area of the Wax Lake East levees from the 1996 to the 2008 maps.
Morgan City Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi said the city will stay secluded from adopting the revised 2008 maps until the Morgan City levee improvements project is complete. Grizzaffi anticipates the city would be able to adopt the revised maps by 2020.
Some levee stretches in Morgan City are being raised by as much as 4 feet, while other sections may be raised by just a few inches. The Morgan City project should mostly finish within a little over a year with the exception of protection for Lakeside Subdivision, which is still in the brainstorming phase, Grizzaffi said.
The undeveloped Hellenic property by Lake Palourde isn’t included in the secluded areas, Grizzaffi said.
The parish also secluded from west of the Wax Lake Outlet to the Charenton Canal, including the Centerville and Franklin areas, LaGrange said. Officials plan to seclude that area until FEMA evaluates it using a partial credit method, he said.
Using that partial credit method should decrease the elevation requirement from property owners to build to, LaGrange said.
Once FEMA re-evaluates those areas in west St. Mary, the parish will get “partial credit” for the protection it does have, including man-made or natural features that provide protection against a 100-year storm surge event.
LaGrange expects Morgan City’s levee improvements to be finished before FEMA comes back to evaluate Morgan City for the partial credit process.
Anyone with questions on specific flood zone information may contact St. Mary Parish government at 337-828-4100 ext. 500 and ask for the planning and zoning department.
To view the revised FEMA flood maps for St. Mary Parish, visit http://msc.fema.gov/portal/availabilitySearch?addcommuni-ty=220192&commu.... Click on the folder labeled “Pending Product,” and then select “FIRM Pan-els.”