From Sunday's Keystone Edition Radio:
Before Hurricane Agnes hit Wilkes-Barre on June 23, 1972, only two flood insurance policies were in place in the city.
After the flood, only 0.2 percent of insurable losses in Pennsylvania were covered, according to a Scranton Times article from Feb. 9, 1976.
Today, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is in the process of finalizing a multi-year project to redraw flood maps around the Susquehanna River. So far, the new maps put more than 1,000 new properties in a special flood hazard area.
The property owners will either be encouraged to pick up flood insurance; if they have a federal mortgage they will be required to purchase it; or some existing premiums will increase in price. Preliminary maps were issued in September 2020. The maps are in review now and are expected to be finalized by this October.
Purchasing policies can be steep for some property owners and unexpected for those who have lived outside flood zones for over 10 years.
As part of the post recovery from Tropical Storm Lee, which hit the area in 2011, FEMA tasked the Army Corps of Engineers to relook at the hydrology and hydraulic model of the Susquehanna River from Sunbury to the Lackawanna County border. The last maps were issued in November 2012.
Many things have changed since FEMA and the Army Corps looked at the model, said Christopher Belleman, executive director of the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority.
“There's a lot more development in the watershed ... storm water gets to the river faster than it did before. We're starting to see more, because of climate change ... frequent and intense storms. So when you put this all together the flood threats along the river have increased dramatically.”
The Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority was created in 1996 to oversee the entire 16-mile Wyoming Valley Flood Protection System. They also work with property owners and municipalities who are challenging the updates in the special flood hazard areas.
Belleman said many of the small river-side communities and those alongside the river’s creeks are the most impacted by the change in flood maps. More than 300 properties in West Pittston could be added to the special flood hazard area, he said.
Some of the communities were placed into different zones for other reasons, including Kingston. The borough has a legacy of coal mining, said Belleman.
"Over time there's been some subsidence. So now you've got these little pockets of depression in the topography," he said.
In 2012, those areas were marked as Zone X, which means there is a minimal risk for flooding.
"But now these these little pools are ponding areas, they're zone AE, which is a special flood hazard area," he said.
But Kingston has invested a lot of money into its storm water system, Belleman added. And because of that, many of those properties don’t need to be in a special flood hazard zone.
Normal homeowners policies typically do not include flood insurance. Flood insurance is a relatively new thing, said Belleman.
It started in the 1970s around the same time the federal government started to subsidize flood insurance, he said. That's also around the time FEMA began providing flood maps for communities across the country.
"After Anges there was a series of other storms as well. There was a lot of devastation involved. Again, the federal government was trying to help mitigate the effects of flooding. And that's when the flood insurance started," he said.
The new maps and the insurance they require can be a burden on homeowners.
“But for someone who's in a special flood hazard area, their flood insurance premium could be in the $1,000s and for some people that could be a real affordability issue."
U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright introduced a bill in March to make flood insurance more affordable not only because of the new maps but also to help alleviate changes from the new flood insurance policy premium calculation, called Risk Rating 2.0.
Risk Rating 2.0 went into effect in October for new policy holders and in April for all existing policy holders.
The combined result of the new flood maps and implementation of Risk Rating 2.0 may lead to a premium increase for NFIP policyholders, according to Cartwright’s office.
Last year, as part of a larger package, the House passed a flood insurance affordability program. Cartwright’s bill is more generous, his office said. It provides more funding for its discount program and includes residential properties as well as small businesses, nonprofits and churches. The House and Senate have upcoming hearings about NFIP reauthorization and reform.
It’s been 50 years since Agnes hit and 11 years since Tropical Storm Lee flooded the river. Both are considered once-in-a-lifetime floods.
Belleman feels confident in the authority’s levee system but with the new changes in the Susquehanna’s watershed, he thinks flood insurance for property owners is a good idea, regardless of location.
"There could come a day where we have a flood event which is greater than Lee. And in that case, the system will be overtopped," he said.
He said you can't build a system for every conceivable flood, it would be too expensive.
"No community could could afford that. And so you design a system that is going to be effective for you for for what do you think is gonna be a long period of time," he said. "But climate change ... that changes everything. You just don't know what's going to happen going into the future.”
Tune in for a special Keystone Edition Reports: Agnes 50 on Thursday, June 23, at 7 p.m. on WVIA-TV. The broadcast premiere of "Agnes 50: Life After the Flood" begins at 9 p.m. that evening, also on WVIA-TV.
