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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Officials May Shrink Disputed Flood Plain Fema Says It’s More Than Willing To Review Designated, But Dry, Zone In North Spokane

Jim Lynch Julie Titone Contributed T Staff writer

Federal officials said Thursday they will consider shrinking a north Spokane flood plain that sticks dozens of homeowners with pricey flood insurance premiums.

“If we need to change the flood map, we’ll change the map,” said Chuck Steele, regional flood plain specialist for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Steele said he will soon review apparent evidence that errors were made in calculating the flood zone that covers a neighborhood of about 80 homes off Country Homes Boulevard.

Homeowners there complain they shouldn’t be forced to pay up to $500 a year in premiums to assure mortgage holders that their homes are protected against flooding from a drainage ditch carrying Five Mile Prairie runoff.

Steele said he’s waiting to see evidence collected by county flood plain supervisor Tammie Williams that indicates even a 100-year flood wouldn’t overflow the ditch.

“If Tammie Williams is saying there’s new data, that’s gold to me,” Steele said.

Elaine McReynolds, administrator of the FEMA-run National Flood Insurance program, also said the agency is flexible and eager to change flood plains as new evidence surfaces.

But she said people are often naive about the potential for floods. “What we know is, you can never say never,” she said. “Our flood maps can’t be exact. It’s not 100 percent. But they’re pretty accurate.”

McReynolds stopped in Spokane on Thursday after delivering checks to insured flood victims in Cataldo, Idaho.

Jim Daugherty was happy to get a $3,000 check from McReynolds, the first money he’s seen in exchange for 22 years of premiums on a home the Coeur d’Alene River flooded earlier this month.

For the first time, FEMA now aggressively advertises and promotes its flood insurance program, which collects $1.1 billion in premiums a year.

“I Never Thought It Could Happen To Me,” reads a full-page ad in national magazines beneath a photograph of a crying man wading through waist-deep water.

“We want people to know that the (insurance) is available and reasonably priced,” McReynolds said, noting the average premium is about $300 a year.

The total number of policyholders has grown by about 20 percent since 1994, but still only one in five homeowners living in flood plains bother to buy policies. And most of those only get it because mortgage companies demand it.

This year, FEMA added another incentive for people to get insured. Homeowners without the coverage will only get federal emergency assistance once.

The next time disaster strikes the aid will not be available - unless they have bought flood insurance.

As of Thursday, FEMA had received about 750 requests for emergency assistance from southeastern Washington homeowners. About 600 requests came from North Idaho.

FEMA’s Steele said the agency is poised to punish Benewah County for allowing homes to be built too low in the flood plains flanking the St. Joe River.

“There were some real bad mistakes made,” said Steele. “There were homes actually dug into the dike.”

If the problems are not corrected within a year, the county gets dropped from the National Flood Insurance Program.

As a result, Benewah County residents would not be able to buy flood insurance at all.

By contrast, Kootenai and Shoshone counties get their residents discounts on flood insurance premiums by running vigilant flood plain programs, Steele said.

He noted Spokane County would also qualify for rate discounts up to 15 percent, but hasn’t requested them.

Williams said the county plans to soon apply.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Jim Lynch Staff writer Staff writer Julie Titone contributed to this report.