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FEMA Guidelines Threaten New Orleans Rebuilding
New flood elevation guidelines for New Orleans from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are burdensome and could make it prohibitively expensive for many families seeking to repair their substantially damaged homes, according to home builders in the area.
"The new FEMA Base Flood Elevations (BFEs) are too generalized and need to be based on more thorough research," said Toni Wendel, president of the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans and owner of Olde World Builders & Remodelers, L.L.C. "This one-size-fits-all approach arbitrarily raises the flood elevations in areas that are already well above flood levels. It may also unnecessarily increase the costs of rebuilding homes that may not need to be elevated to the levels suuggested by the maps."
The guidelines “recommend,” for a large part of the city, that “new construction and substantially damaged homes and businesses within a designated FEMA floodplain should be elevated to either the Base Flood Elevation (BFE) shown on the current effective Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) or at least 3 feet above the highest adjacent existing ground elevation (HAEGE), whichever is higher.”
“Where did they get this 3-foot rule?” asked Jon Luther, executive vice president of the home builders association. “We have not been given any sensible answer. We very much want to rebuild New Orleans and make it the great city it used to be. We recognize that it is appropriate to have consistent codes and standards that will enable homes to withstand a significant flood event. But the FEMA guidelines are excessive and inflexible.”
“A lot of people will be swept up in these guidelines,” he added. “And a lot of the affected people cannot afford the kind of elevation requirements FEMA has imposed.”
It can cost from $50,000 to $100,000 to raise a home enough to meet the FEMA flood requirements.
“If you apply this rule universally, then a lot of people will be affected by it who otherwise could have afforded to repair their homes,” Luther said. “If this advisory precludes people who were already at BFE [Base Flood Elevation] from being able to rebuild, then we feel that is bad policy.”
“We’re putting a task force together within the New Orleans HBA and we plan to further assess the guidelines and to explore pragmatic alternatives to the FEMA guidance that will help solve the problem,” he said.
FEMA’s guidance is an advisory and it still needs to be adopted by local parishes to have any real effect. But it is the position of the Louisiana Recovery Authority that if home owners are not building to these standards in the advisory, then they are less likely to be eligible for insurance or for state or federal financial assistance, Luther said.
Builders are troubled that the 3-foot rule applies to all substantially damaged homes, regardless of the home’s location or its height relative to the base flood elevation.
“Look at the three-foot above ground requirement,” said Randy Noel, president of Reve, Inc., a custom home builder in the New Orleans area. “What is the highest existing adjacent ground? This is kind of nebulous, and you don’t know if you have met their standard, even with three different surveyors going to the site. And it’s 3 feet everywhere, regardless of the elevation.”
The home builders said that they would like to see FEMA take a more systematic approach to determining flood elevation requirements.
“It appears that there is a disconnect between the Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA,” said Noel, who is the NAHB state representative for Louisiana. “The Army Corps maps are slower to put together because the Corps bases its decisions on scientific data. FEMA doesn’t necessarily have that same criterion.”
“If they derived these elevation guidelines from the ruptured levies, then that is a problem,” Luther said. “The BFEs are supposed to be based on a 100-year storm occurrence. Assuming the levees are repaired and will function properly in the future, then we should be building to a 100-year flood situation, not to a failed levee situation.”
For more information on this issue, e-mail Blake Smith at NAHB, or call him at 800-368-5242 x8583.
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