The Flood Insurance Guru Podcast Episode 15: New Flood Insurance Maps for Galveston Texas

n today's episode, we'll talk about the flood map update for August 15, 2019, and how this will impact flood insurance for Galveston residents, why there's a new flood map, and do we need to change anything?

Flood Map Update

First, let's cover the easiest one in the bunch, why the new flood maps? Well, it's important that flood maps get updated as much as possible especially when there's constant change in base flood elevation levels, a lot of land development, and a lot of uncontrollable disasters like hurricanes. Now, this can really affect any flood map, but for Galveston, it's an awesome thing to get an update on the flood map especially considering that the last one was from 1999.

That's basically a flood map that's outdated for 20 years now. By that, you can immediately see that flood risks have changed significantly for a developing coastal area. Remember, coastal areas have the highest risk of flooding when it comes to flood zones, so not updating the flood map will sure to hurt the livelihood, property, and safety of the residents.

A question that's commonly asked on flood maps is "why does it take so long?"

Well, flood map updates or technically Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) updates is a very tediously complicated process. You need to consider that everything must be accurate since we're talking about not just flood insurance alone, but also public safety.

For example, one part of this process that FEMA does is to collect relevant data from these areas and analyze them which is a lot of back and forth. This can be very challenging if there's data that wasn't retrieved immediately, if not entirely lost, since this will be the basis for the flood map update. For Galveston County, they tried to update the flood maps multiple times in the last 10 years, but due to new data coming in every now and then, the update gets reworked multiple times as well to make sure that everything's accurately done.

Impact

New flood maps come with new and significant impacts when it comes to flood insurance. One of the receivers of this will be League City.

Back in 1995, the city had around 1,200 properties that sit on a 100-year floodplain, and with this new map, that number's increased to around 3,700. This is a really drastic impact for League City, but it didn't come out of nowhere especially considering the amount of time from the last flood map. A lot of people moved into this area throughout that period and developments have been made as well.

Other areas that will be impacted are Galveston Island, Galveston Bay, and generally the western parts of it. You'll see that there'll be properties moved from a low-risk flood zone to a high-risk flood zone which is generally bad because they're going to come from lower flood insurance premiums to higher ones.

Some are moved out of high-risk flood zones to low-risk flood zones which are generally good because this is the opposite of the previous one where flood insurance rates are going to be significantly lower than what they had before the update.

What's going to be ugly on this update is some properties are even being moved even deeper into a higher-risk flood zone. This can mean that you were previously in Flood Zone A and you're now moved into Flood Zone AE. We call this ugly because property owners, who already pay for high flood insurance rates, will now pay a higher rate.

Whatever area you may fall into, it's best that you know your options and what to do with this update.

Flood Insurance Options

The first and most well-known flood insurance option, the government-backed National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). We've already discussed the coverage and benefits of their flood insurance policy as well as its downside. You can review more on these through our previous blog post and podcast:

The NFIP

One important update you should know is that the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and FEMA will provide newly mapped rates for property owners who were moved from a low-risk flood zone to a high-risk flood zone. What this policy provides to these owners is an adjustment period for their payment on their flood insurance for their first year. For example, if you were paying $400 for your policy then after the update you now have to pay a $1000 premium, then FEMA and the National Flood Insurance Program will allow you to pay $500, $600 for the first year and it gradually increases until you meet the exact premium you'll be paying. This is a great benefit since it shows that the federal flood insurance acknowledges that the first year after a map update can be a stick or shock, and they want customers to get adjusted to that.

Now, for some, it may be that they're moving from a high-risk zone to a higher-risk zone. In this type of situation, you'd be expecting that you'll be locked into these zones and that you'll get a higher rate than what you have before. However, if you already have an existing policy when this update came then it will be grandfathered to the buyers of your property which is also beneficial.

To review, the National Flood Insurance Program policy provides a maxed out coverage of $250,000 for residential properties or up to $500,000 if it's for a commercial property, and this is with personal property or content coverage that maxes out at $100,000. Additional living expenses and replacement costs aren't included in their flood insurance coverage as well. 

The Private Flood Insurance

The other option you have is through private insurance companies known as "private flood". The private flood insurance market has become popular across the U.S. especially in Texas after what happened during Hurricane Harvey. Now, it's important to know that the private flood insurance market may choose to non-renew your policy due to claims or deny you a policy as well due to possible reasons like having your property close to a body of water.

Now, it doesn't go without saying that the flood insurance policies from private insurance companies can be very beneficial. For one, the private flood insurance market doesn't max out at $250,000 and $100,000 for property and content coverage respectively. The policy also covers additional living expenses and replacement costs. You can learn more about the private flood insurance market by streaming our podcast and checking our blog:

Fight the Change

Another question that pops up to mind when it comes to flood map updates is "Can I fight these changes?"

The good thing about flood insurance is that you can actually fight these changes, so yes, you can fight it, but there's no guarantee you'll win. For Galveston and Houston, Texas, where there have been big flood disasters, this can be a difficult time to fight.

One of the things that FEMA looks at and your first hurdle is the history of flooding. They're not going really remove properties from these special flood hazard zone and those that are deemed as repetitive loss properties since the risk is still there.

You may also have an elevation certificate or a survey that shows that your lowest adjacent grade is above the base flood elevation level, then you can be a candidate to get your flood zone changed. A flood zone change is proven to really help in decreasing your flood insurance premium while reducing the flood risk. Another benefit of having your flood zone changed is determining if your property can fall into the preferred flood zone.

It isn't true that since you're not in a high-risk flood zone, you can't get flood insurance. Both the NFIP and Private Flood Insurance will actually be happy to provide you flood insurance with the best rates since you're in the preferred low-risk zone.

So, when it comes to Galveston County, League City, or Texas as a whole you're now more aware of these changes, your flood insurance options, and how you can fight the change. If you do have questions on your flood premium, flood map changes, elevation certificate, or anything about flood, feel free to click our links below to watch our YouTube videos, call us, or get a quote.

Remember, we have an educational background in flood mitigation to prepare you for flood disasters and reduce the flood damage on your property, so that we preserve its value long term.