OCEAN CITY — Nearly a month after Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said it would amend flawed flood zone maps for many oceanfront properties, resort officials this week urged affected property owners to reach out to their carriers for potential rebates.
Last month, Ocean City got great news from FEMA on its request to alter flawed flood zone maps that landed some oceanfront properties in the highest flood insurance premium category, costing beachfront properties millions of dollars in rising flood insurance premiums. Ocean City recognized the apparent flaws in the mapping, which put some properties in the highest flood zone designation despite essentially having two dunes to protect them, and requested a Letter of Map Revision (LOMR) to correct the error.
In November, FEMA agreed to honor the LOMR sent by the town, essentially revising the maps and removing dozens of oceanfront properties from the highest flood zone designation.
Many oceanfront property owners have already paid the exorbitant flood insurance premiums associated with VE zone designation on the flood maps, but most will be eligible for a rebate once FEMA’s map revisions go into effect in March. In the meantime, Ocean City Engineer Terry McGean, who led the LOMR effort to change the maps, urged property owners to reach out to their insurance carriers for rebates.
“FEMA approved the Letter of Map Revision, but its effective date is not until March 2017,” he said. “I urge any property owners and buildings impacted by this to contact their insurance carriers. I know there are rebate programs available, but I’m not certain the timetable.”
McGean said the town was able to identify 26 total properties affected by the erroneous flood zone maps and most were covered by FEMA’s agreement to recognize the LOMR.
“There were 26 buildings within Ocean City where the V-E zone line clipped the front of the building,” he said. “Those 26 properties did not see the benefit of lower insurance premiums. The approved Letter of Map Revision covers 17 of those problem properties between 93rd Street and 123rd Street in the area known as high-rise row.”
However, a handful of properties were not covered by the LOMR and their fates still hang in the balance.
“The remaining nine properties are still waiting on word from FEMA,” he said. “I’m optimistic they’ll be included and we’ll continue to follow through with them.”
Councilman Wayne Hartman said he believed the insurance carriers would ultimately adjust the premium rates for the impacted properties, but there might be a lag time before the rebates were issued.
“The way I understand it, if they apply now, they will still be under the higher rate,” he said. “When the maps become effective in March, the rebates will become available.”
Last July, FEMA issued new flood insurance rate maps for Ocean City that recognized the value of the dune system created by the Army Corps of Engineers by locating the VE flood zone, or the most onerous flood insurance rate designation “seaward of the landward toe of the primary frontal dune system.”
However, in a few areas of the resort, particularly along condo row from 93rd to 123rd streets, FEMA determined through its new maps an existing secondary dune, built in front of several oceanfront properties in the early 1980s, was now the standard by which the VE flood zone would be determined. As early as 1983, the town mandated certain oceanfront projects construct a dune in front of the properties to protect them from storms, coastal flooding and beach erosion.
Years later, the primary dune was constructed through the beach replenishment project. As a result, the primary dune is in front of the older secondary dune with a fenced alleyway of sorts about 10 feet wide in most cases separating the two. However, FEMA’s newest maps released last year designated the seaward side of the secondary dune as the line marking the VE flood zone.
As a result, numerous oceanfront buildings found themselves partially in the VE flood zone, some by as few as five feet. For some individual property owners, the flood insurance rates in the VE zone run as high as $22,000 annually. For at least one oceanfront property used as an example, the flood insurance premium for the entire building approached $500,000.
Mayor Rick Meehan on Tuesday praised FEMA for making the map alterations.
“The good news is FEMA recognized the value of beach replenishment,” he said. “Getting this changed was no small task. Getting the federal government to make a change of this magnitude is huge, and we owe Terry and his staff a debt of gratitude for getting it done. … It was a detailed process, and a frustrating process at times. At one point, Terry said he was ready to bulldoze the secondary dune. That shows just how important this was to the Town of Ocean City.”
