When cities or agencies build a flood protection system such as a dam, diversion or levees, people build homes in the now protected area. This “protection” removes the requirement for flood insurance and many times people do not obtain flood insurance. When the flood reduction system fails or is overwhelmed, there is no flood insurance.
The Corps of Engineers addresses this issue in the July 2011 , Appendix P. of Fargo Moorhead Metropolitan Area Risk Management plan. The Diversion Authority is pushing forward with the plan to remove the insurance requirements from the natural flood plain south of Fargo. This will allow building without flood insurance in this area. This is exactly what the Corps cautions against doing.
The PBS story below is about Minot and their experience with the protection in the flood plain.
DEAN FRANTSVOG:(city council president), FEMA in 2001 — or 2000 — “I don’t remember the exact year — changed the floodplain here in Minot. So flood insurance wasn’t required after that floodplain was changed. So, at that point, people probably felt secure that flooding wasn’t a real possibility. And it’s been such a long time, and we have done — we have had flood protections put in place since our last major flood of 1969, so there was that security that people were feeling. And, like you said, probably less than 10 percent of the people have flood insurance here.”
Watch Flood Threat Creates ‘Psychological Roller Coaster’ in Minot, N.D. on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
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Now we have this story from the Minot Daily News January 4 2012,
“The Ward County Board of Commissioners(Minot) approved a one-year moratorium on building permits for new buildings and plats in areas of the flood plain Tuesday.”
Minot Daily News –
“More Time for Rebuilding — County Approves One Year Moratorium on Building Permits”
fmdam.org will be following this story intensely.
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