By: JoAnne Purtan
WXYZ ABC Ch. 7 News
Click here to watch the story on YouTube
HARRISON TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Congress recently extended the National Flood Insurance program, which requires most homeowners in flood plains to purchase flood insurance.
But many Michigan homeowners are crying foul because their premiums are going to pay claims in flood prone states.
It’s not his beautiful home Eric Foster loves so much but the view from the back and everything living on the water means.
“I love to fish,” Foster says. “There’s just something peaceful about the water.”
He’s lived just three houses away from Lake St. Clair for the last 13 years. He lives in Harrison Township, in what the government has designated a flood plain.
“Have you ever had a flood here?” I asked him.
“No, we haven’t.”
What frustrates him so much is that the living space in his home, is actually many feet above the flood plain level. It’s only his garage that falls below the level. But still, every year Eric and thousands of other Michigan resident, get a bill for government mandated flood insurance. In Eric’s case, it was more than $1800 last year.
“I just view it as a tax,” he says.
He also gets a flood insurance bill at the marina he’s owned for 26 years. No flood there during that time either.
“It’s something we don’t need but are being forced to pay by the federal government,” Foster says. “I would say the residents of Michigan are getting the short end of the stick.”
And he’s not the only one who believes that. Michigan representative Candice Miller has argued against the program on the floor of the House in Congress.
“Quite frankly, my home state of Michigan feels like the ATM machine for this flood insurance program,” she told fellow lawmakers back in June.
The National Flood Insurance Program requires that anyone with a mortgage must buy flood insurance if they live in a FEMA-designated flood plain, and there are many of them around the country. Representative Miller’s problem with it?
“This program keeps paying claims year after year so some Americans continue to live in flood prone areas. That’s fine, if they want to live there, but i don’t know why those people in the great lakes have to keep paying these repetitive claims year after year,” Rep. Miller said.
Numbers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency show from 1978 to 2009 Michigan residents have paid over $264 million dollars in flood insurance premiums. We’ve gotten back $44 million dollars.
Only 3 times in the last 30 years, did Michigan residents collect more in claims than we paid in premiums. In flood prone Louisiana, that’s happened 11 times. Our money is clearly going to help pay their claims.
“It’s unfortunate they have hurricanes and they have flooding,” Rep. Miller says, “but when you have 1% of the claimants who are receiving 30% of the payouts, it’s because you have a home in a floodplain that has to be continually replaced. I’m sorry you should either pay that yourself or move.
And get this, the average Michigan flood insurance premium is $786 dollars a year. In Louisiana, it’s $669, and in Florida, another flood prone state, it’s just $467 dollars.
A recent report from the General Accounting Office states… “additional study would be required to determined whether policyholders in some states with lower losses are paying a higher premium than is appropriate for their risk, and others paying too little.”
For the past several years, by Congressional mandate, FEMA has been redrawing flood plain maps across the country. Some are now included, thus needing to pay insurance, who haven’t been before. And others are paying more than they used to.
That’s the case with Eric Foster.
“Ii feel our legislators should truly look at opting out of this flood insurance program because it’s costing Michigan residents dearly.
That’s what Congresswoman Miller wants to see.
But for now, what can you do if you find your home in a floodplain? You can hire a property surveyor to come out and help determine if your house is truly below the designated flood plain level, or if your house perhaps sits higher, maybe on a hill or another elevation. (Read some tips from a property surveyor below)
Many people have done just that. And a surveyor has found their house is indeed above the level. In that case, they’ve been given a “Letter of Map Amendment” which means you no longer have to purchase the insurance.
Eric did that years ago and was successful but then the government raised the flood plain level up 13 inches. So now even though just his garage is under the level, he’s stuck paying.
*After i began putting this story together, I heard from other people complaining about the insurance they’re required to pay, and others stressing the importance of flood insurance, and the real risk that living in a flood plain presents, even if it’s been years since there’s been a flood.
Rep. Miller just wants fairness. She’d prefer we opt of the national program and self-insure, which would lead to more reasonable rates, commensurate with our flood risk. Governor Granholm never got on board with the idea, maybe governor-elect Snyder will.
For more on FEMA’s flood maps, and whether you’re in a flood plain, click here.