BERLIN Residents of Worces-
ter County turned out in force last
week for a special Flood Insurance
Rate Map (FIRM) interest meeting
in Berlin, resulting in an unexpected
jam at the beginning of the meeting.
"We have an extreme bottleneck
here," said Robin Danforth, a study
manager at Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA). "Like
I said, we really were not expecting
the numbers that we have here right
now."Instead of having a mass lecture,
the meeting was divided into seven
stations for the 300-plus attendees.
There was an area for check-in and
another for reference material. The
five main stations included Property
Location and Identification, Com-
munity Map Review and Compli-
ance, Appeals and Comments,
Flood Insurance and finally Mitiga-
tion Ideas.
"Tonight is really an opportunity
for you to gain a little understanding
of if the changes in the maps are
going to impact you," Danforth told
the crowd. "So what we've done is
we have several stations that have
been set up."
However, the massive turnout
clogged up the process, bottleneck-
ing many residents at the Property
Location and Identification station.
FEMA quickly changed the system,
adding extra stations and suggest-
ing that people begin to circulate
instead of wait for the first station.
"I know that it is a little confus-
ing," Danforth said in an apologetic
tone.But even with the early cluster,
officials were excited to see such a
large amount of interest in the com-
munity. Worcester County Commis-
sion President Bud Church came
into the meeting with low expecta-
tions."We'd like to have 200 or 250,"
he said. "Realistically, if 30 show up
we'll be lucky."
The county estimates that about
300 attended over the course of the
three-hour information session. It
was a pleasant surprise for Com-
missioner Judy Boggs. Like Church,
Boggs hadn't expected nearly as
much interest in the meeting as it
managed to draw.
While the county has been ham-
mering the importance of individual
homeowners being knowledgeable
about changes to flood plains
through a several month advertise-
ment and awareness campaign,
other recent public information
meetings like the one on voter re-
districting failed to excite the com-
munity.
"It's very gratifying after the turn-
out that we received with the re-zon-
ing," Boggs said.
While much of the crowd focused
on the Flood Insurance station,
there also appeared to be a large
number who were merely interested
about how the floodplains will be
changing, even if their property
won't be impacted.
"I figured people would be curi-
ous because any time that you try to
change something people get curi-
ous," said Commissioner Virgil
Shockley.
Ocean Pines and Berlin resi-
dents showed a strong turnout
though few if any currently fall under
the changing floodplains. Carolyn
Cummins, a former county planning
commissioner, was in attendance at
the meeting just as an onlooker.
She recognized many in the crowd
as residents who live outside of the
affected area.
"Mostly Ocean Pines and there
are a few people from Berlin but I
just think that's curiosity because
they're not really impacted at all,"
she said.
But there were many at the meet-
ing who do have a vested interest in
how the maps will change. Since
the amendments were announced,
the commission has been worried
that the new maps will take some
still vulnerable properties out of
flood zones. This may mean that the
owners won't need to maintain flood
insurance any longer but would suf-
fer if they drop their coverage and
receive heavy damage from a flood-
ing event.
The question that Shockley hop-
ed every property owner asked was
how the individual rates would be
affected if they chose to maintain
insurance but were removed from a
flood zone.
Specifically, he wondered if the
government would still subsidize
any funding for flood insurance if a
property is outside of the flood plain.
"I'm hoping that somebody is
asking the question. If we have that
vacation home and you take me
out, am I still eligible for federal
funding?" he asked.
Those properties would not be el-
igible, according to Danforth.
"It would not be subsidized," she
told Shockley.
However, the funding loss should
be offset by a corresponding de-
crease in flood insurance costs. If a
property is outside of a flood zone,
the risk of flooding will be lower and
so will the rates consequently.
"If they are now designated out-
side of the special flood housing
area, when the maps go effective
because they're preliminary maps
right now, they will be rated based
upon the actuary risk," Danforth
said.Worcester will need to adopt the
FRIMs over the next six to nine
months. The county will be working
with both FEMA and the Maryland
Department of the Environment to
see the maps put in place.
Hundreds Turn Out To Learn
About Flood Insurance Changes
January 24, 2014
Page 15
The Dispatch/Maryland Coast Dispatch
By TRAVIS BROWN
STAFF WRITER
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