Updated floodplain map places more homes out of harm’s way
The Federal Emergency Management Agency reviewed updates to the floodplain with the public, who showed up to see how their homes were impacted at a meeting Tuesday night in Colorado Springs.
Matt Buddie with FEMA said updates to the map have been a work in progress since 2007. It will take an additional 15 to 18 months before changes are finalized.
Buddie said more homes are being taken out of the floodplain than moved into it in this latest update.
According to Buddie, the last finalized map was put out in 2004. Since that time more advanced technology has helped FEMA improve its mapping technology and its understanding of local topography.
Gary Wright lives on Pinto Pony Road in Falcon. Heavy rain has lead to flooding on his property for years. When he built his shop in the mid 1990’s, it wasn’t in a floodplain. However, it is now. He blames construction upstream of his property for creating problems for him and his neighbors.
“The problem is, the maps wouldn’t have to change if there were people upstream that weren’t doing things that shoved it (storm water runoff) our way,” said Wright.
His neighbor Kristen North also attended the meeting hosted by FEMA. She gave El Paso County permission to work on her property to help with flooding problems on Pinto Pony Road. She showed up to see if her home was now be in the floodplain. She was grateful to learn it wasn’t because her family can’t afford the flood insurance.
“We don’t have the money for. We are both working and he is working four jobs and we are just making ends meet, just trying to survive. So it’s like, we can’t afford these extra payments,” said North.
Buddie said the map does not take into account people who are at risk of flooding because of the Waldo Canyon or Black Forest burn scars.
“It’s just not something that’s part of our mapping procedures. There is kind of a limited period, say seven to 10 years, where you have an increase in flood risk for a burn scar area so we don’t take that into account when we do mapping,” said Buddie.
Follow this link to see if your home is impacted.
