Loebsack asks FEMA to hold up on new flood maps; 'FEMA bigshots' need to get out here, says one neighbor

CEDAR RAPIDS - Some 40 neighbors who live along a drainage way in northwest Cedar Rapids called the Vinton Ditch had three City Council members over Wednesday evening to voice their objections about new federal flood-insurance maps that put their homes in the 100-year flood plain.

As the meeting unfolded, Mayor Ron Corbett was sending text messages to Congressman Dave Loebsack's chief of staff in Washington, D.C.

On Thursday, Loebsack announced that he has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to delay the April 5 enactment of the new flood maps for Cedar Rapids to give residents who now find themselves in the 100-year flood plain and now face the need for flood insurance to appeal the map's conclusions.

The new FEMA maps for Cedar Rapids change the flood-risk status of some 1,900 parcels of property, with about half of the parcels moving into a more-risky classification, either from the 500-year flood plain to the 100-year flood plain, or from outside the 500-year flood plain into it, the city has said.

Generally speaking, owners of properties in the 100-year flood plain with federally backed mortgages are required to have flood insurance on their properties.

Loebsack, whose letter to FEMA on Thursday also was signed by Iowa's senators, Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley, seeks to give residents a new period of time to appeal their flood-risk status and he raises concerns about some of the new zones on the new maps.

City Council member Don Karr, who attended the Thursday evening meeting with neighbors along with Corbett and council member Chuck Wieneke, said Thursday that the hope is that FEMA will reopen the 60-day appeal process to give residents with questions about their place in a flood plain a chance to make a case to redraw the flood plain lines.

Karr said residents from the Williams Court NW and other places along the Vinton Ditch report that they were not flooded during the historic 2008 flood.

The so-called Vinton Ditch runs above ground in spots and underground in others from the Cedar Hills neighborhood to the Time Check neighborhood where it empties into the Cedar River.

Loebsack's office on Thursday said neighbors along the Vinton Ditch and from elsewhere in the city have been calling the office for some weeks. A Loebsack representative also attended Corbett's flood forum last Thursday, in which “it was clear” that the new FEMA flood maps had caught many homeowners off guard, Loebsack said Thursday.

Loebsack acknowledged that FEMA's effort to inform residents about the new flood maps began in December 2008.

Bob Short, of 2336 William Ct. NW, hosted the living-room meeting on Wednesday evening with the three council members and 40 unhappy neighbors, and on Thursday, he said he was happy to hear of the developments in Washington, D.C.

“I don't know where they came up with this map that they threw at us,” Short said. “But somebody, some of the big shots from FEMA have to come out here and see what's going on.”

Short said he's lived along the Vinton Ditch – the waterway apparently once was part of a creek coming out of Vinton, he said - since 1985, and he said he never has had any floodwater near his house. The only problem the neighborhood has had is with sewer backups, he said.

Back in 1991, FEMA placed his house in the flood plain, but then too it out, he said.

Short said he has not rushed out to buy flood insurance, but instead he said he decided to call City Hall and to call his Congressman.

“You have to fight government now,” he said.