Areas Designated As Flood Plains Perhaps Outdated New River Studies Unlikely To Receive Approval Soon
Vernon and Verna Larson knew their home had been elevated above the flood plain as Shoshone County ordinance requires.
So they didn’t bother to take cherished photos or important papers when they left their home on Feb. 10, as floodwaters threatened to inundate Coeur d’Alene River Road.
“We almost stayed,” said Verna Larson, still amazed that 30 inches of brown water filled their mobile home. “It was sickening. When we bought the place, they told us the water would never get into it.”
The story was repeated in Cataldo and St. Maries. It could mean the Shoshone, Kootenai and Benewah county flood plain designations are out of date.
“We’re definitely looking at it,” said Shoshone County planner Harold van Asche.
The 100-year flood plain for the Coeur d’Alene River was determined by a study done in the 1970s by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The fact that recent floodwaters rose above that plain could indicate that February’s flood was more than a 100-year event, van Asche said.
The flood plain study also could be out of date because the Coeur d’Alene River has been made shallower in recent years by rock washing into it from upstream erosion. Scientists agree that’s happened; van Asche is among those who blame clearcuts and logging roads.
Shoshone County may request another FEMA flood plain study. After a smaller flood last fall, FEMA engineer Larry Basich encouraged counties to request new studies if they thought current information was outdated.
But Basich is not optimistic that any new studies will be approved.
Each year, $400,000 is available for studies in the Northwest’s 100 flood-prone areas. A Boise River study alone is costing $240,000.
“In some years we can only do one big study, and three little ones,” Basich said.
The top priorities are heavily populated areas and ones where expensive homes are threatened - in other words, places where flood insurance damage claims would be high. That’s why money is going to Western Washington. And it’s going to Blaine County, Idaho, where wealthy people in the Sun Valley resort area have built pricey homes along the Wood River.
, DataTimes