FEMA wielding double-fisted hammer
Extend pilot or lose NFIP

The controversial and almost universally maligned Federal Emergency Management Agency pilot inspection program of lower level enclosures that was supposed to last only seven years from its 2002 inception has been extended for at least another 18 months.

County officials received notice from the FEMA Floodplain Management and Insurance Branch, Mitigation Division last week that the federal agency feels as though Monroe County has not made enough strides in a program to eradicate non-conforming downstairs enclosures.

“Following consultations with Monroe County…we have decided to extend the Pilot Inspection Procedure for Monroe County unincorporated areas,” wrote Major May, regional administrator for that division. “Based on discussions with your staff, we understand that the county has not made significant progress identifying and remedying unlawful enclosures and it requires an extension of the Pilot Inspection Procedure to complete the requirements…”

In 2002, the county agreed, under threat of expulsion from the National Flood Insurance Program, to enter into a pilot program whereby enclosures thought to be non-conforming would have to be inspected by county personnel before flood insurance on those properties could be renewed.

Known locally as the insurance inspection program, county staff was to identify properties where potential non-conforming enclosures existed that carried federally subsidized flood insurance policies.

Those policies are backed by FEMA and provide lower cost flood insurance for Monroe residents, an insurance required by mortgage lenders who use any federal agency to back the loans, such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Housing and Urban Development.

Once identified through a series of various property codes on the Property Appraiser’s record card, the property would be sent to FEMA. Those codes include almost all FLA or LL codes on the record card held by the appraiser’s office. FEMA would then notify the insurance carrier that an inspection would be required of the area below base flood before it would renew a policy, or grant a new policy in the case of existing homes sold.

The carriers sent letters to the property owners informing them of the requirement and giving them six months to have an initial inspection. The insurance could be renewed once if the property wasn’t in compliance but if it hadn’t received a clean inspection by the end of the renewal year, flood insurance would be cancelled.

Cancellations for homes with mortgages usually resulted in the lender force placing flood insurance at much higher rates than FEMA backed policies.

If the properties failed to come into compliance within a year of renewal, the county could, and often did, begin code enforcement proceedings to force compliance.

The original pilot program length was announced at seven years in the Federal Register Notice that implemented it, and was subsequently extended.

The reasons for the extension, according to Growth Management Director Christine Hurley are all based in the numbers.

County elected officials had been told by former growth management personnel that the county’s obligation would end when all insurance-carrying homes had been reported to FEMA.

FEMA officials are claiming in this latest notice that simple notification does not constitute community compliance with the mandates of the floodplain regulations.

“The county sent the last batch of letters under the pilot program to carriers in November 2011,” said Hurley. “Over 5,000 letters have been sent.”

Once FEMA was notified and it in turn notified the carriers, who then in turn notified property owners, those properties were in the pipeline for the pilot program inspection.

“The policy holders have to contact the county for the inspections of the downstairs enclosures,” said Hurley. “We know there are over 2,000 policy holders that have yet to contact the county for inspections.”

Once in the pipeline, opined FEMA officials, the property must received a compliant community inspection report of the lower level enclosure.

“It is imperative that the county complete the inspection procedure for all potential enclosure violations by the new termination date,” wrote May. “Failure to demonstrate substantial progress in the coming months will place the county in jeopardy of being deemed non-compliant with minimum NFIP floodplain management standards.”

And that non-compliant determination could put the county right back in the same predicament it found itself in when the pilot program was implemented in 2002.

Then as now, potential expulsion from the NFIP could be the ultimate penalty.

Under the terms of the pilot program, not only would expulsion mean that private property owners couldn’t get flood insurance from FEMA, it could also mean that FEMA mitigation dollars for pre-storm projects and dollars for post-storm debris clean up and restoration could be withheld should the county experience a hurricane event like a Georges from 1998 or a Wilma from 2005.

“We understand from previous discussions with FEMA that in order for FEMA to view completion of the pilot program, it means the county has inspected and enforced compliance with floodplain regulations for all of those policyholders that the county initially notified through the carriers,” said Hurley.

The reasons for properties not having complied with the inspection order are varied.

Once notified, some property owners who had no mortgage just decided to drop flood insurance rather than go through the inspection process, believing that the lack of flood insurance negated the need for the inspection. Still other property owners paid off existing mortgages and cancelled flood insurance, again believing that negated the need for the inspection. Even though the property may have been compliant with FEMA regulations, some property owners simply didn’t like the idea of being forced to pay several hundred dollars for an inspection, or being forced to have county inspectors on the property in general principle.

And some property owners able to afford the additional premium simply allowed the lender to force place flood insurance, again believing that negated the need for flood insurance.

Those beliefs, according to the newest FEMA notice, were inaccurate.

In the letter, May said FEMA expects Monroe County to continue to identify enclosure violations, inspect those potential violations and remedy the violations to the maximum extent possible.

The county is expected to submit a detailed plan on how it plans to achieve compliance with the pilot program mandates by March 1, and is also expected to submit quarterly progress reports to the FEMA Atlanta regional office.

Hurley said her office hasn’t yet taken any action on the letter.

“The letter says they will contact us and to date, to my knowledge, they have not called,” said Hurley.

She did plan to discuss this newest development in the controversial pilot program with the Board of County Commissioners during the Thursday meeting.

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