Norton Gets Funding to Build Levees, Plans Town Meeting With Residents in Flood Zone (10/26/2010)
Norton Gets Funding to Build Levees, Plans Town Meeting With Residents in the Flood Zone
March 26, 2010
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) yesterday was briefed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on its decision to issue a final flood evaluation determination for the District of Columbia today, March 26, updating its 1985 Flood Insurance Rate Map that identifies Special Flood Hazard Areas. The map outlines potential flood zones in the SE and SW areas of the District, surrounding the U.S. Capitol and monuments, and will require residents within the 100-year flood zones to obtain flood insurance, temporarily, until a portable levee is constructed in the area around 17th Street and Constitution Avenue. Norton will hold a community meeting with SE and SW residents on the flood maps and on their options.
The Congresswoman has been able to hold off issuance of the flood map for two years to spend time working with FEMA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service (NPS) and the District to obtain funding to build the levee. As a result, she has been able to get $5.8 million in federal stimulus money for the construction of the levee, which will be built by the Army Corps and beautified by NPS.
In most jurisdictions, the states would be responsible for funding and building these levees. However, because this is a federal levee that protects mostly non-residential federal land, Norton has worked to ensure that the federal government assumed the cost of the levee. With the looming threat of FEMA's flood map, the District paid $2.5 million for the design of the new levee, but Norton has been working to get the federal government to reimburse the District for this cost as well.
Flood maps have already been issued in communities throughout the U.S. "I appreciate that FEMA has held off for a couple of years on this map and regret that they could not have waited an additional year for the Army Corps to complete the levee. After all, this is a federal levee on federal land, and the District should have had almost nothing to do with this project, which is between three federal agencies: FEMA, the Army Corps and NPS," Norton said. "Buying a flood insurance policy, even temporarily, will be a real burden for people, especially during the ‘Great Recession,' when people all over the country are barely able to pay their mortgages," she added. The Congresswoman did, however, receive assurances from FEMA officials that affected residents will be able to pay a significantly reduced premium of $188 to $384 a year for their flood insurance until the FEMA maps take effect in September.