Families take FEMA’s offer to escape risky flood zones

The goal is to cut claims by reducing the number of victims

By Tia Mitchell

Florida Times-Union–March 17, 2009

Summer showers are cause for concern for families living along Wills Branch on Jacksonville’s Westside. They know it’s just a matter of when, not if, the creek will flood.

“Every June we have to hold our breath,” said Tarsha Watson, whose family moved into a home along the Wills Branch’s banks in 1998. “You know there is a possibility, but you just don’t know how bad it will be.”

The Watsons love their home but are tired of living in fear of a major flood. So they are getting money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to move and start a new life in a home outside the flood zone.

The Watsons are one of three Jacksonville families taking part in the new, Severe Repetitive Loss program for properties that chronically flood and drain the money in the National Flood Insurance Program. Properties that qualify have had at least four flood insurance claims worth more than $5,000 each.

FEMA pays 90 percent of the cost of the move and each participating family must pay the remaining 10 percent. The program’s goal is to get these families into homes that don’t flood so easily, meaning less costly and less frequent flood insurance claims.

Just 1 percent of flood insurance properties account for 25 percent of flood claims totaling $200 million annually, according to FEMA.

The 7,000 properties nationwide designated as severe repetitive loss properties have been paid $1 billion in claims – about $143,000 each, on average – since the flood insurance program was created in 1968, FEMA said.

Despite efforts to deepen Wills Branch with dredging, heavy rains still cause it to overflow and threaten dozens of houses on its banks every year. And it’s not just hurricanes or tropical storms – any sustained rain could create a problem.

The Watsons have seen the creek rise over the bulkhead, into their backyard and up to the doorstep. The water also has come through the front yard to the door once the rising creek has overwhelmed the drainage system.

Neighbors along Wills Branch have learned to look out for one another, knocking on doors during storms.

“We make sure they’re up and aware and know the water is rising,” Tarsha Watson said.

The Watsons are among 19 Jacksonville families eligible for the program, all of whom received letters from FEMA last year. They attended a meeting at a neighbor’s home, where a FEMA representative explained the options to several Wills Branch families:

They could have their home relocated out of the flood zone, demolish it and move to a new home, or demolish it and rebuild a new house at a higher elevation on the same property.

Only the Watsons and their hosts, the Sallas family, decided to opt in. They chose to have their homes torn down and their property turned into open space that could possibly reduce flooding for their neighbors.

A third family living in West Jacksonville also is participating and has opted to have a new house rebuilt on its existing property.

The Jacksonville City Council must give final approval to the program, although it does not require any local dollars.

John Sallas said he already has a new home chosen and is just waiting to receive the word from the city’s Emergency Preparedness division that everything has been finalized.

He said he and his wife knew their home along Wills Branch was prone to flooding when they moved there five years ago.

There hasn’t been any major damage to the home since he’s lived in it, but its history of big-ticket rebuilding projects is a worry. And the offer from FEMA was too good to refuse, Sallas said.

“They say [with] what they have spent on the homes, it’s worth it to them to go ahead and buy the homes and tear them down rather than keep paying for the flood damage,” he said.

The rest of the families along Wills Branch have decided not to participate, despite FEMA’s warnings that their flood insurance premiums could increase as much as 150 percent. Some couldn’t afford the 10 percent requirement or didn’t like the options provided.

“They would rather take out the insurance and take the chances of not flooding,” Sallas said.

The federal government offers various other flood mitigation programs for homeowners, and each year the city’s Emergency Preparedness division mails 200 families to notify them of program eligibility.

“Ultimately it helps the entire insurance pool if you’re taking these high-risk properties and mitigat[ing] them so you’re not constantly having damage claims reported every storm season from these ones that are going to predictably have problems,” said Laura D’Alisera, the mitigation and recovery planner for Emergency Preparedness.

She said Jacksonville’s flooding issues are caused when the ground becomes saturated in heavy rain and the water doesn’t have anywhere to go.

“That’s why it’s really important for people to consider the investment into flood insurance,” D’Alisera said. “Even when you think you are in an area that doesn’t flood, it could possibly flood.”

Those with flood insurance are the ones who become eligible for the various FEMA mitigation programs like Severe Repetitive Loss and could get letters like the Sallases and Watsons received in June.

Tropical Storm Fay, which hit in August, caused many homeowners to reconsider the letters they had once ignored.

“Lots of people who had received the letter in June all of a sudden said, ‘Wait a minute, I need to investigate this more seriously,’ ” D’Alisera said.