New Austin Flood Plain Maps
Jun. 29th, 2008 02:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebNew maps of the floodplains in Austin have been drawn and go into effect for insurance purposes on September 26. If you have a mortgage on a property in a floodplain, your mortgage company may require you to purchase flood insurance.
If you weren't in a floodplain according to the old maps but you are according to the new maps, you can save piles of money by buying flood insurance now if you don't have it already. I've heard your rates will be grandfathered. The newsletter from the utilities company says "Property owners will receive a better rate on flood insurance, both this year and in future years, if they purchase insurance by August 11, 2008, forty-five days before the new maps become effective."
You can see the new maps, only first you have to acknowledge that these new maps are only working maps and don't actually mean anything. (Those two libraries listed that hold hard copies of the old flood maps? One of them is mine. Suspense builds.)
I tried the interactive map first. There is a blue area on the map and an aqua area on the map which I assume are flood plains of some variety, but I can't find a key. If so, the map is showing that my house is still not in the floodplain but that the apartment complex on the other side of my back fence is still in the floodplain.
So if that's true, I still get the good rates on flood insurance, but the drainage improvements in my area have not pulled the apartments out of the floodplain--the apartments which are almost completely paved over and which seem very leaky from my side of the fence! Perhaps apartment buildings are absorbent, at least when occupied.
Then I tried the other map. It is not as easy to find a specific place on that map, and once you do, the detail is not as nice.
My utilities newsletter says you can also contact your insurance agent to see if your property is affected. I think I might just do that. And for more information you can call the Watershed Protection and Development Review Department Floodplain Office at 974-2843.
Flood insurance is not included in your homeowners insurance. It is a separate add-on policy which I think is offered by the federal government but which you buy through your regular insurance agent.
I first learned about flood insurance when I lived in a suburb of Houston and some of the folks who lived near the creek ended up with six feet of standing water in their house. This is not ordinary tap water, either. It's storm water. So it could have anything in it. The more fearful things people talked about were sewage and snakes.
At that time, my mom found out that flood insurance was extremely cheap and so she started getting it. And so when I got my house, I also got flood insurance, although it wasn't as cheap as I expected. And then when I saw a flood map, I decided it was definitely worth it. (Note to self: check for geologically stupid building before buying property next time.)
I just renewed my flood insurance today. For $296, I get $150,000 of coverage for the building (with a $500 deductible) and $60,000 of coverage for building contents (with another $500 deductible) for one year, so that's just under $27 per month. No damage to the land (trees, etc.) is covered. So that's an example of what flood insurance can cost someone outside the 100-year floodplain.
If you weren't in a floodplain according to the old maps but you are according to the new maps, you can save piles of money by buying flood insurance now if you don't have it already. I've heard your rates will be grandfathered. The newsletter from the utilities company says "Property owners will receive a better rate on flood insurance, both this year and in future years, if they purchase insurance by August 11, 2008, forty-five days before the new maps become effective."
You can see the new maps, only first you have to acknowledge that these new maps are only working maps and don't actually mean anything. (Those two libraries listed that hold hard copies of the old flood maps? One of them is mine. Suspense builds.)
I tried the interactive map first. There is a blue area on the map and an aqua area on the map which I assume are flood plains of some variety, but I can't find a key. If so, the map is showing that my house is still not in the floodplain but that the apartment complex on the other side of my back fence is still in the floodplain.
So if that's true, I still get the good rates on flood insurance, but the drainage improvements in my area have not pulled the apartments out of the floodplain--the apartments which are almost completely paved over and which seem very leaky from my side of the fence! Perhaps apartment buildings are absorbent, at least when occupied.
Then I tried the other map. It is not as easy to find a specific place on that map, and once you do, the detail is not as nice.
My utilities newsletter says you can also contact your insurance agent to see if your property is affected. I think I might just do that. And for more information you can call the Watershed Protection and Development Review Department Floodplain Office at 974-2843.
Flood insurance is not included in your homeowners insurance. It is a separate add-on policy which I think is offered by the federal government but which you buy through your regular insurance agent.
I first learned about flood insurance when I lived in a suburb of Houston and some of the folks who lived near the creek ended up with six feet of standing water in their house. This is not ordinary tap water, either. It's storm water. So it could have anything in it. The more fearful things people talked about were sewage and snakes.
At that time, my mom found out that flood insurance was extremely cheap and so she started getting it. And so when I got my house, I also got flood insurance, although it wasn't as cheap as I expected. And then when I saw a flood map, I decided it was definitely worth it. (Note to self: check for geologically stupid building before buying property next time.)
I just renewed my flood insurance today. For $296, I get $150,000 of coverage for the building (with a $500 deductible) and $60,000 of coverage for building contents (with another $500 deductible) for one year, so that's just under $27 per month. No damage to the land (trees, etc.) is covered. So that's an example of what flood insurance can cost someone outside the 100-year floodplain.
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no subject
on 2008-06-29 10:32 pm (UTC)My house appears to be at LEAST half a mile from any conceivable flood area. Yay!
no subject
on 2008-07-02 04:22 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-07-02 01:59 pm (UTC)