New digital mapping techniques applied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Blaine County's flood zones are sending about 150 residents in Hailey's Woodside subdivision scrambling to get flood insurance.
Mortgage companies rely on FEMA maps to decide whether to require a homeowner to buy flood insurance.
"We built here in 1993 and nobody said anything about a floodplain," said Mike Jaskowski, a building contractor who lives on Blue Lake Drive in Woodside. "Now, 18 years later, I need flood insurance?"
Jaskowski and his wife were among the 40 people who attended a meeting at Hailey City Hall on Wednesday to learn more about the implications of FEMA's reassessment of flood risk in Blaine County. The agency has issued new flood zone maps based on new digital information. Many attendees at the meeting had already received letters from mortgage lenders requiring them to get flood insurance within 45 days, or it would be purchased for them and added to their monthly mortgage payments.
The Jaskowskis say it will cost them about $1,300 annually to insure a house that they say has always been high and dry.
"It's insane," he said.
Hailey Flood Plain Administrator Jim Zarubica hosted the meeting with Jeff Woodward, a FEMA flood insurance specialist, and insurance agent Toni Cox. Together they explained the reasons for the map changes, how to get preferred rates for two years of flood insurance and how to seek exemptions from the new charges.
In cases where residents think they are clearly above the high water mark indicated by the FEMA map, an option exists for them to send a "letter of map amendment" to the FEMA Map Service Center for review.
Woodward said that if the home is high enough in elevation off the flood zone, FEMA will refund insurance costs dating from when the letter was sent.
Residents in homes built or substantially expanded after 1978 would have to get "elevation certificates" from engineers to accompany their letters. Elevation certificates cost from $300 to $900 and can be obtained from local engineers.
Some residents could be exempt from the new insurance requirements for other reasons.
The panel advised all residents who are getting letters from lenders requiring them to get insurance to contact an insurance agent quickly.
"The question is, 'How risky is it?'" Woodward said. "Floods can destroy communities."
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The surveying and mapping of floodplains for the National Flood Insurance Program began in 1968 to provide data that would allow insurance companies to provide flood insurance to high-risk areas. The goal was to provide a more equitable disbursement of federal disaster relief funds by requiring those who live in harm's way to insure against loss.
Some Woodside residents will now have to pay to survey their own yards and provide the information to FEMA in order to avoid what they see as unnecessary insurance coverage.
"We're still trying to find out what FEMA did," said Zarubica, who has been studying the new map for inconsistencies and exploring ways the city could get relief for Woodside residents from the new insurance requirements. "Anyone can see that something is wrong here."
A floodplain map created in 1981 by FEMA designated areas on and beside Woodside Boulevard as the flow channel for floodwaters from Quigley Creek. The last time the area flooded was in 1963, during what Zarubica described as a "freak event."
Today, the channel has been redirected through culverts within Woodside subdivision and southward to the Big Wood River, but the canal is cluttered with junk and has been partially filled in.
Zarubica said about $500,000 could be raised through a local improvement district made up of affected residents to repair and clean the meandering canal through Woodside. He said that if the canal were improved and culverts replaced, it could convince FEMA that Woodside roadways and adjacent homes could be removed from federal maps as potential floodways.
Zarubica is also looking into a FEMA map revision process that would involve challenging its estimates of the risk of floods from Quigley Creek. However, he said the process could take up to six years.
Linda Culver, a Twin Falls-based area director for Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, said at the meeting that she would take "privacy release" letters from residents to begin a process of lobbying the federal government for changes to the new map. She said she organized a successful effort in Bellevue years ago to remove residents from a FEMA floodplain map.
"We will be there to support you," she said.
Anyone who would like more information can call Jim Zarubica at 788-4221.
Tony Evans: tevans@mtexpress.com
This new map indicates a potential flood zone within the yellow lines, compared with gray zones for a flood map made in 1981. Courtesy graphic
