Business
& Labor
FEMA Releases Flood Elevation Guidelines
(archrecord.construction.com - 04/13/2006)
By Sam
Lubell
On April 12 FEMA released its flood
elevation guidelines for New Orleans and nearby levee-protected
areas, which could determine the fate of thousands of new
and existing buildings. The results call for raising hurricane-damaged
structures three feet above their current bases, a lower elevation
than many building owners had expected. The guidelines were
supposed to be issued in January, and subsequent delays had
frustrated many residents and communities who wanted to move
forward quickly with rebuilding.
The guidelines, compiled by FEMA-funded scientists and engineers,
will advise communities in the Louisiana parishes of Orleans,
Jefferson, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines—all in southeast
section of the state— about the minimum elevations considered
safe for rebuilding and renovation. All these parishes are
protected in some way by surrounding levees. In producing
the guidelines, experts considered current and planned levee
conditions, past hurricane seasons, and erosion and sinking
of coastal land in the area.
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The document states that any construction damaged by Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Rita should be elevated three feet above its current position or be raised higher if pre-existing regulations so mandate. The new FEMA guidelines do not, as officials point out, affect insurance rates or the availability of federal funding. The area’s preliminary Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs), which will be released by FEMA in several months, should determine insurance rates. Structures built or changed before those FIRMs are released will only have to adhere to past rate maps. But the new data will be important as a safety recommendation for communities hoping to rebuild, as well as serve as a prime indicator of future regulations. In a few weeks FEMA will unveil its flood elevation maps, which will put the information in visual form.
“FEMA strongly recommends communities build higher and stronger to reduce vulnerability from flooding during future hurricanes," stated David Maurstad, FEMA's Mitigation Division Director yesterday. "FEMA provides this kind of advisory information to local governments, but ultimately it is state and local officials, working with their citizens, who make final decisions on land use and other building code requirements."
Most residents and officials seem relieved that homes and buildings do not have to be raised much higher, which would make rebuilding difficult. "The good news is, it's not a dramatic elevation,” said Donald Powell, the Federal coordinator of coastal rebuilding. FEMA spokesperson Butch Kinerny says that FEMA0-based elevations rest on the assumption that levees will be brought up to the highest safety standards. Reconstruction would probably take at least four years. Some residents and experts, however, fear that the 3-foot elevation is too low, and may leave many buildings vulnerable to future flooding.
The delay in the release of the flood elevation guidelines, says Kinerney, is due mostly to the time it took the Army Corps of Engineers to test the effectiveness of the area’s current levee systems. The process was quite labor-intensive, complicated by the myriad local agencies in charge of levee management throughout the state. FEMA was also hoping that Congress might allocate more funds toward strengthening the levees. Powell stated in late March that the levees would need an additional $6 billion in construction to make the area safe from the 1% chance of having a flood reach exceptionally dangerous levels. Congress has thus far approved $3.5 billion toward stabilizing the levees. The rest of the fund allocations are still pending in Congress.
"I would view it as good news, and I would view it as information that we can use to get on with our lives," stated Sean Reilly, a board member of the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. The LRA will decide how federal rebuilding money is spent in the state.
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