EBR flood maps change

• By AMY WOLD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: May 10, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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When it comes to flooding — and flood insurance — elevation is everything.

As of May 2, that “elevation” in East Baton Rouge Parish may have changed for some properties.

There were no landslides or earthquakes, but what did change was how the Federal Emergency Management Agency measured the elevations for the new flood maps.

“The maps have changed,” said Lynette Richardson, engineer technician with the city-parish Department of Public Works. “They (people in the parish) do need to check because it has changed.”

For the last maps, in 1993, FEMA used a benchmark from 1973 to make the measurements. For the new maps, FEMA used a benchmark from 1988. That resulted in differences ranging from a half foot to a foot, with the 1973 method higher than the 1988 method, Richardson said.

That means for some people, their “elevation” dropped on the new maps, but that doesn’t mean their house sank, Richardson said.

“You just appear to be lower,” she said. “The base flood elevation has changed.”

The base flood is that level of flooding that statistically has a 1 percent chance of happening in any given year.

The new maps could also mean changes in flood insurance requirements for some people.

Property owners who have not had to purchase flood insurance before may now need to get it. Others required to have flood insurance in the past may now be out of the flood zone.

Some mortgage companies may still require flood insurance even if the property is not in a designated flood area or elevation, she said.

Also, some property owners now with lower elevations may avoid increases in flood insurance premiums because their properties were developed based on the older maps.

“If you built it on the old map, you can get grandfathered,” she said. “A lot of people get upset because they see the map’s changed and they think they’re stuck.”