Coastal infrastructureCoastal communities can lower flood insurance rates by addressing sea-level rise

City leaders and property developers in Tampa Bay are urging coastal communities to prepare today for sea-level rise and future floods in order to keep flood insurance rates low in the future.

Last week, the Florida League of Cities met in Belleair Bluffs for the first in a series of meetings throughout the state to encourage city officials to invest more resources in flood mitigation programs which will reduce the risk of storm damage and possibly reduce federal flood premiums of local residents by roughly 20 percent. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which administers the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), is increasing flood insurance premiums across the country, partly to offset losses from recent disasters such as hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. Cities can reduce insurance premiums for nearly all residents who carry flood coverage by improving storm-water drainage, updating building codes to reflect projected rise in sea-levels, moving homes out of potentially hazardous areas, and effectively informing residents about storm danger and evacuation routes.

With FEMA looking to increase premiums by 15 percent or more each year, state officials believe now is the time to take measures that could result in discounts for policyholders. Some coastal communities like Indian Shores have made efforts to ensure residents get the best discounts possible through FEMA’s Community Rating System (CRS) program, but the area — a narrow barrier island — will remain vulnerable, if not to a storm then to the cost of insuring against one.

Danny Hinson, community rating system coordinator for Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, notes that more funds will be available for rebuilding after a major storm. “If there’s a storm, whether it’s a hurricane or just flooding, some of them are going to get substantially damaged and they’re going to have to build them to the new standards,” he said.

The Tampa Bay Tribune reports that an extra foot of freeboard — the space above flood level — can save a policyholder 45 percent, but raising a 50-year-old beach cottage to meet current safety standards will prove cost prohibitive for most people. “Any number of people over the decades built according to code when it wasn’t 10 feet and now you’re coming in and saying to them, ‘You’re below base flood elevation.’ Excuse me, when they purchased and built, they were not,” said Mike Petruccelli, a member of the Indian Shores Town Council, noting FEMA’s most recent flood map revision doubled and tripled insurance rates for many residents in his beach town.

To help cities reduce their risk of flood, thereby achieving a llower flood insurance premium, FEMA’s CRS evaluates local governments on nineteen safety activities, giving them a score of 1 to 10 based on a variety of flood mitigation measures. Less than half of the 450 Florida communities that receive coverage through NFIP take part in the CRS program. Tampa and St. Petersburg are rated at 6, giving their residents a 20 percent discount. Cities can receive up to a 45 percent discount through the CRS program, though only Roseville, California, has reached that level by moving almost all of its buildings out of the floodplain and elevating homes and other structures well above the water level of a 100-year flood.