SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - More than 400 homeowners whose property lies along the Missouri River in southeast South Dakota are no longer facing a potential surcharge on their flood insurance.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday said Union County officials met a Monday deadline to submit documents addressing accusations that they did not maintain adequate record keeping and failed to manage development in the flood plain.
FEMA had threated to put Union County on probationary status with the National Flood Insurance Program starting in mid-May unless it addressed what it called “program deficiencies” and “flood plain management violations.” The probationary status would have resulted in a $50 surcharge for flood insurance policyholders.
“They have a year to take some corrective action, and I give them a lot of credit, they really had to roll up their sleeves and come up with some good remedies for some of the problems there,” said Jerry DeFelice, external affairs specialist for FEMA.
The county has promised engineering studies and modifications to address the issues brought up by the federal agency. The construction of basements in the mapped flood plain area is among FEMA’s chief concerns. Basements are banned in the flood plain.
DeFelice said FEMA and South Dakota authorities will follow up with county officials during the next 12 months to ensure that the county takes action on its remediation plan.
The National Flood Insurance Program, a part of FEMA, underwrites flood insurance policies sold by commercial insurance companies. Union County joined the program in 1977 and the area’s current flood plain map was drawn in 2001. Traditional insurance policies for homeowners and renters do not cover flood damage. People who live outside a mapped flood plain can get insurance at low rates, while premiums within flood plains depend on how buildings are constructed.
Zoning director Dennis Henze said Wednesday that the county, as part of the remediation process, will spend between $50,000 and $60,000 to hire engineers and surveyors to be able to draft a letter to ask FEMA for a map revision in an area of Dakota Dunes where homes were built about three decades ago.
“At the time, we are talking in the late 80s, this area wasn’t in the flood plain,” Henze said. “And the homes were built and everything was fine. Now, they’re saying ’Oh, no, no. That’s in the flood plain.’”
Union County has 424 flood insurance policies. Only homeowners in the unincorporated area of the county, including Dakota Dunes, would have been affected by the surcharge. But incorporated areas, such as North Sioux City, would not have been forced to pay the penalty.
Low-lying areas in Union County, including Dakota Dunes, faced rising water in June 2011 as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers increased flows through dams on the Missouri River to get rid of water from rains of up to 8 inches that fell in Wyoming, eastern Montana and western North Dakota and South Dakota.
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