FortBendNow.com

Missouri City has earned a “very good” Community Rating System Score of 7 from the National Flood Insurance Program, placing residents in a “strong position” to secure lower flood insurance premiums, according to city representatives.

Director of Public Works Scott Elmer told city council that “most communities receive an eight or a nine.”

Missouri City applied for participation in the federal flood management program in August and received its preliminary score based on the city’s documentation of existing practices and on existing improvements that have been made since then, according to Elmer.

NFIP, an arm of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, rates U.S. cities on their efforts to implement preventive floodplain management measures and these standards are called the Community Rating System.  The CRS program rates cities’ flood management practices through a 1 to 10 point system that rewards them for implementing organized and proactive measures, 1 being the best score and 10 the worst.

For Missouri City residents who live in a floodplain, the “7″ rating means that the average homeowner of a $150,000 house with a $50,000 content coverage, could see an $86 a year insurance discount by the end of next year.

Elmer also stressed that residents living outside of the city’s floodplain should also purchase flood insurance. He told council that 70 percent of the areas that flooded during Tropical Storm Allison were not in the floodplain.

With the city’s current CRS score, residents who live outside of the floodplain would have their insurance policies discounted by about 5 percent under current guidelines.

The next step in the annual process is for FEMA to officially admit Missouri City into the CRS program, which is expected to happen in April or May. After that, insurance companies will be notified of the city’s rating and residents should see a rollback in their rates toward the end of 2010. With additional improvements such as an updated flood ordinance, the city could be classified as a “6″ in the next year or two.

The city and Fort Bend County are updating the area’s floodplain maps to define flood zones more accurately by ensuring that they reflect the current physical landscape.  The map modernization process began in August, 2004 and the visuals were recently released to city and county officials for review.

Results from the preliminary new maps created with “better data and new technology,” according to Elmer, show the total number of structures in the city’s floodplain down from 150 to 30. The reduction is attributable to such factors as the construction of drainage projects and the creation of master watershed plans, Elmer said.

Next in the process, FEMA will schedule a formal coordination meeting with the City and other affected agencies in the area. Then, the maps will be officially released to the public for a 90-day comment period and inquires will be investigated and resolved before the maps go into effect. The process could take from 90 days to two years.

In the meantime, city officials encourage residents to view the new maps at:  http://fbcmap.co.fort-bend.tx.us/floodplainmap/ and http://fbcmap.co.fort-bend.tx.us/floodmaptool/.

“It will be in the homeowners’ best interest to look at the new maps on the Fort Bend County website,” Elmer said.