(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson county board of supervisors this (Tues.) morning heard the pro’s and cons over whether or not the county should re-enroll in the National Flood Insurance Program. Dickinson county opted out of the program October 12th, 2002 after hearing concerns from property owners, lenders and others over technicalities in the program at the time. Changes since then have the county re-visiting that action. Among them is a new rule making any city or county that fails to join the program by June 30th, 2011 ineligible to receive financial assistance for future flood-related diasters, or other disasters that would occur within areas designated to be in the flood plain.
In addition, Ken Boma who oversees the National Flood Insurance Program through the DNR’s Flood Plain Management Section, told the supervisors there’s been another major change in that lenders are now requiring anyone buying a home in a flood plain to purchase flood insurance. Because Dickinson county is not participating in the National Flood Insurance Program, getting flood insurance is extremely expensive. As a result, it’s impacted some potential home sales in the area. Boma says based on that, it’s become a no-brainer for many governmental entities that opted out of the program at one time to want back in now.
One key element supervisors and atleast a couple of city representatives have is that if the county does pursue re-enrolling in the program is that flood plain maps be redrawn. Officials say existing maps are inaccurate in that they identify properties as being in flood prone areas when in reality they are not. That’s costing those property owners time and money in an effort to get exempted from flood insurance requirements.
The supervisors today (Tuesday) stopped short of taking official action to begin the process of getting back into the program. They’re expected to take that action at their meeting next week.
