NY supervisors hail congressional probe of flood maps
By Thomas J. Prohaska
Buffalo News
Two Niagara County supervisors whose towns were hard hit by new federal flood plain maps reacted positively to Monday's news that the investigative arm of Congress will look into how those maps were compiled.
Timothy R. Demler of Wheatfield and Marc R. Smith of Lockport both hired the Wendel Duchscherer engineering firm of Amherst to produce ground-level elevation maps of properties that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had added to flood zones.
In both towns, a large percentage of FEMA's measurements were found to be erroneous, leading to the removal of the parcels from the new maps.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer announced Monday that the Government Accountability Office had informed him that it will launch a probe into FEMA's methods and policies on the new maps in about two months.
Schumer and two other Democratic senators, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, requested the investigation.
A homeowner in a flood zone is required by federal law to buy flood insurance from FEMA through an agent, which adds several hundred dollars per year to the cost of homeowners' insurance. FEMA pays flood damage claims from the insurance fund.
"I still contend FEMA was trying to shore up their cash reserves by putting a lot of people in the flood plains," Demler charged.
Max Young, a Schumer spokesman, said the senator "was concerned that was a possibility."
"The assertion is false," FEMA spokesman Clark Stevens said. "Identification of flood hazards is a critical first step in managing and mitigating flood risk, and the only thing FEMA is trying to bolster is the protection of property and communities.
"That said, as with all GAO reviews that have offered insight into improving FEMA's programs, the agency will consider and evaluate any new findings that can assist in improving our processes and procedures."
"It's welcome news," Smith said of the probe. "As much as I believe in the FEMA mission, I think they have been overly aggressive in their flood plain mapping."
Stevens said, "FEMA identifies flood hazards in coordination with state and local governments to ensure that communities have the information needed to make sound decisions."
FEMA was mandated by law to revise flood maps nationwide. In New York, it used a laser-driven device mounted in low-flying airplanes to measure elevations.
FEMA said the unit was accurate to within 6 inches, but Wendel Duchscherer's measurements on the ground often found larger errors.
Demler said that of 907 properties in Wheatfield that FEMA planned to add to flood maps, only 240 remained after the town's work. In Lockport, Smith said 70 property owners allowed the town's firm to take measurements, and FEMA made errors on 32.
The 667 Wheatfield parcels and the 32 Lockport parcels were among those formally protested to FEMA for deletion from the flood plain maps. Similar problems with mapping arose in Buffalo and in several other communities around the state.
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