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So is it a flood plain or isn’t it?
New FEMA maps coming, but will they help area residents?
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Article RatingCrystal Fleagle is confused. Does she live in a flood plain or doesn’t she? Is she required to have flood insurance or not?
It appears even her mortgage company isn’t sure.
Fleagle is not alone. Many of her neighbors in the Toland area of Dickinson Township are confused as well.
“We’ve lived here all these years and have never seen water,” said Brenda Shull.
Toland is a tiny enclave that sits along Pine Grove Road. Ten duplex homes were built in the late 1800s to house workers of the Philadelphia Clay Company. Mountain Creek crosses the road about 100 yards from the end unit. You cannot see the creek from the back yards of the homes.
A few years ago, Fleagle said, a project was done to reflow the creek, taking it even further away from the homes.
But Fleagle and Shull and a handful of other Toland homeowners received letters last year from their mortgage companies telling them they were required to carry flood insurance. Since then, for many of the residents, it’s been a battle with mortgage and FEMA officials to determine whether or not flood insurance is needed in their community.
Yes or no?
The Fleagles bought their home in 2006. At that time, no flood insurance was required by their mortgage company. A few months later, however, the couple was told their home was in a flood plain and insurance was required. They paid about $400 to obtain coverage.
A few months later, they were told no flood insurance was required.
According to a letter dated Aug. 30, 2007, sent to the Fleagles from their mortgage company, the “property is now considered to be minimally exposed to, but not excluded from flood risk.”
The couple dropped their flood insurance. Four months later, they received a letter from their mortgage company stating that their property is in a Special Flood Hazard Area and are required to hold flood insurance.
After several frustrating phone calls, Fleagle said she agreed to purchase flood insurance, but by this time, the cost had doubled.
Shull also received a letter last year from her mortgage company telling her that suddenly, after nearly a decade living in her home, she needed to have flood insurance.
“I’ve never even had water in my basement,” Shull said. “Nobody’s gotten water here. This isn’t fair.”
Jason Perkey bought his home last year and was told he needed flood insurance.
“For (water) to get up to my house, it’s going to take all but a natural disaster,” he said.
The Perkeys had no choice but to purchase the insurance.
“With the price of everything else and the mortgage. ... I don’t like my arm being twisted to buy something,” he said.
Several of the homeowners approached Dickinson Township officials hoping for answers. Township Manager Ron Reeder told them FEMA is releasing a new flood map in March. In the meantime, Solicitor Ed Schorpp suggested that the group hire a surveyor to submit a study to FEMA.
But the Toland homeowners said they can’t afford to hire an engineer.
“We pay taxes into this township -- can’t they do something?” Perkey asked.
“They’re passing the buck back to us,” Fleagle said. “I just want to know what classifies us as a flood zone. None of these houses have ever flooded.”
The FIRM
Last month, municipalities across the county received letters from FEMA notifying them of changes in flood hazard determination. Communities are designated on Flood Insurance Rate Maps under Title 44, Chapter 1, Part 67 of the Code of Federal Regulations. A FIRM is the official map of a community on which FEMA has delineated both the special hazard areas and the risk premium zones applicable to the community.
A FIRM is used by mortgage and insurance companies to locate properties and buildings in flood insurance risk areas and by local officials to administer flood plain management regulations and to mitigate flood damage.
According to the letter, FEMA recently completed a re-evaluation of flood hazards in local communities. Each municipality was given an updated copy of the Flood Insurance Study and FIRM, which will become effective March 16, 2009.
FEMA External Affairs Specialist Frank Ferreira, said the FIRMs may “inadvertently” include properties which are elevated above the flood zone for a variety of reasons and landowners may request that FEMA remove a property from the flood hazard area on the maps.
“In most cases, the applicant will need to hire a Licensed Land Surveyor or Registered Professional Engineer to prepare an Elevation Certificate for the property. Upon receiving a complete application forms package, FEMA will normally complete its review and issue its determination in four to six weeks,” according to FEMA’s Web site.
That’s exactly what a group of Mt. Holly Springs residents did several years ago, but FEMA’s four-to-six-week review time has long gone.
The Mt. Holly Springs residents had similar issues over a flood plain near Mountain Creek. They hired an engineer, hoping for changes to FEMA’s flood risk maps and the new engineering study was submitted to FEMA.
According to Mt. Holly Springs borough officials, they are still waiting to hear the results of FEMA’s review.
“We are still waiting. It has been about three years,” Councilwoman Linda Naugle said. “We and the county are getting stonewalled by FEMA.”
According to FEMA’s maps, Mt Holly Springs is listed as the most flood-prone community in the county.
“There is something very wrong with this assessment and this picture,” Naugle said. “Mt. Holly doesn’t have flood issues.”
Local plans required
Included in FEMA’s letter to local officials is a directive for municipalities to adopt flood plain management regulations that meet FEMA standards.
The regulations must be adopted before March 16. If the regulations are not adopted, municipalities lose eligibility in the National Flood Insurance Program, which could prevent funding for flood disaster for municipalities and residents, should such an emergency occur in the future.
Even places like the mountainous Cooke Township, which has few, if any, structures located in a flood plain –- most are in a state park which falls under its own regulations –- is required to adopt the regulations.
Meanwhile, Toland residents like Angie Orchowski are feeling the pinch of flood insurance in an area that doesn’t flood.
“We’ve had all that rain and I haven’t even gotten water,” said Orchowski, who discovered a few days before closing on her property last year that she needed to pay an $1,100 premium. “I’m working two jobs and I’m barely making it. This is killing me.”
