viewpoints | 2010

New FEMA process needed

Rob Vining
National Flood Management Practice Leader
HNTB Corporation

More than 100,000 miles of levees crisscross the Deadline hazards

length and breadth of our country, ranging from The two-year timeline and the differing
sophisticated systems of concrete floodwalls to requirements set by FEMA and USACE pose a
simple piles of dirt and sand. Millions of homeowners challenge. Many cities could be forced to pay for
and businesses rely on this under-resourced daisy levee system improvements twice. While interim
chain to protect against floods and rising rivers. solutions may be put in place in time to meet FEMA
standards, many cities also will need to pay for
This year is no exception, as the National Weather long-term replacement systems in order to meet
Service recently announced that nearly one-third of higher USACE standards.
the nation is at risk for flooding.
This creates a dilemma. Does a city invest in higher
Threat of FEMA Flood zone Remapping levels of protection for its citizens and property
Until 2005 there was no national effort to monitor but miss the FEMA deadline for redrawing? Or
levees and track their effectiveness against storms. should the city build costly interim projects, only to
Hurricane Katrina changed that. Since Katrina, revamp its levees a few years later?
with funding by Congress, the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers has led the charge to comprehensively Currently, there is not an official process for FEMA
assess our nation’s levees. to extend timelines while cities work to make
systematic improvements to levee systems. Without
As a result, more than 124 levee systems in 16 states a process in place to work through extensions with
have been found to be deficient. Many communities FEMA, many communities are finding themselves in
have been notified by USACE during the past uncharted territory.
year that their levees are unlikely to withstand a
significant flood. A Call to Action
Dozens of cities across the nation have been, or soon
Beyond the challenges these communities face during will be, notified the levees protecting their citizens
flood season, if cities cannot bring their levees up to and property are deficient.
standard within two years, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency could redraw flood plain lines on Some communities already are taking proactive steps
the assumption that the levees in question do not exist. to address these deficiencies. On-the-ground levee
assessments and immediate engagement with flood
The threats of uninsurability, deflated property values management authorities at every level of government
and halted development plans under redrawn flood will be crucial.
maps would hamper economic recovery amidst the
largest downturn since the Great Depression. To Two years is simply not long enough. A two-pronged
citizens who depend on levees to protect them in the approach is needed.
event of a flash flood, hurricane or storm, the safety
implications of failure are more dire. First, city managers and citizens must engage
with FEMA to convince the agency to put a formal
 viewpoints | 2010

extension process in place. Flood remapping timelines

should be extended while levee improvements are
underway. Allow cities to focus on the solution, not the
overly compressed process.

Second, residents in flood prone states should contact

their local members of Congress to support a bill
that will suspend flood insurance rate map updates
in areas where levees are being repaired. The newly
established bipartisan Congressional Levee Caucus
has prioritized this issue and a draft bill is currently
under consideration.

Either FEMA or Congress should intercede. We need a

new process to ensure homeowners do not face major
insurance cost increases while providing smart fiscal
spending solutions to make our levees strong.

Improving our nation’s flood management

infrastructure is time consuming and complex. It
involves a range of policy, funding and engineering
challenges.

In the end, the only way to advance flood management

policy is through a united commitment and effort
between elected officials, city, state and federal
flood and emergency management agencies and the
communities they protect.

Rob Vining is the national flood management practice

leader at HNTB Corporation and serves as a consultant
to federal, state and municipal flood management
agencies on levee policy and engineering challenges.

HNTB EXPERT CONTACT INFORMATION

Rob Vining
National Flood Management Practice Leader
HNTB Corporation
(225) 368-2800
E-mail: rvining@hntb.com

HNTB Corporation is an employee-owned infrastructure firm

serving federal, state, municipal, military and private clients. With
nearly a century of service, HNTB has the insight to understand
the life cycle of infrastructure and the perspective to solve the
most complex technical, financial and operational challenges.
Professionals nationwide provide award-winning planning, design,
program management and construction management services.
For more information, visit www.hntb.com.

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