According to a DNR press release, the department will receive a $2.5 million grant to update floodplain mapping for 14 counties. The counties are Adams, Clark, Dearborn, Delaware, Elkhart, Floyd, Hamilton, Lawrence, Madison, Monroe, Porter, St. Joseph, Vigo, and Warrick.
Among other things, the floodplain maps play into the National Flood Insurance Program which giveth on the one hand by making it possible to obtain flood insurance at reasonable rates in areas where that would otherwise not be possible. But it taketh away on the other hand by restricting where new construction can take place and, more irritating to homeowners, where repairs are allowed to take place. If you sustain enough damage to your home, you won’t be allowed to get a building permit or certificate of occupancy to repair and reside in your home. I seem to recall that the damage threshold is 50% of the value of the house, and it’s cumulative. So, if you sustain 20% damage during one flood, 20% during a second, and 15% during the third, you won’t be allowed to make the repairs.
This is a rational part of a policy of trying to get structures out of the floodplain so we don’t have to pay to rebuild them every 5 years or whatever. But, it’s a tough pill to swallow for the individual homeowners who think their homes only need some new carpet and drywall but, to their eyes, the mean old county building inspector is throwing the baby out with the bathwater and kicking them out of their home.
(Incidentally, I like the state’s statewide press release page which, apparently, shows any press release for any state agency in one convenient location. The URL I’ve linked to above is kind of squirrely, so I don’t know if that’s a static link or something dynamic generated for my search today.)
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