Flood insurance premiums for homeowners in Washington County and across the U.S. are changing within the next year.
On April 1, FEMA will begin implementing a new pricing methodology called Risk Rating 2.0.
At Monday’s regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors, county floodplain administrator Daniel Hooker said this update to the National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP) risk rating methodology will be “good for some and pretty bad for others.”
A press release issued by FEMA back in April 2021 stated, “The 21st century rating system, Risk Rating 2.0—Equity in Action, provides actuarially sound rates that are equitable and easy to understand. It transforms a pricing methodology that has not been updated in 50 years by leveraging improved technology and FEMA’s enhanced understanding of flood risk.
Hooker said the new methodology to assess flood hazards for each individual landowner essentially means there will no longer be several houses with similar flood insurance premiums.
And, because the flood insurance policy will be tailored to each individual homeowner, some will be facing some “significant premium increases” he pointed out.
However, implementation of Risk Rating 2.0 will happen in phases.
According to the FEMA website, Phase 1 entails new policies beginning Oct. 1, 2021 will be subject to the new rating methodology and, in addition, existing policyholders eligible for renewal will be able to take advantage of immediate decreases in their premiums.
Phase 2 entails all remaining policies renewing on or after April 1 will be subject to the next rating methodology.
“It won’t come into play until the next renewal cycle, but they may be limited as to how much they can increase premiums per year,” Hooker said, also noting Risk Rating 2.0 is not the sole determining factor in what a homeowner pays. “The premiums have to do with home value and how much deductible the homeowner would like. The flooding source will be taken into account and other things in relation to base flood elevation.”
In response to an inquiry made by District 1 Supervisor Lee Gordon as to whether Risk Rating 2.0 was being implemented across the county, Hooker highlighted FEMA is feeling the brunt of paying out so much of the premiums.
“I think they said 20% of all claims come from low risk areas, so, in order to kind of stem the flow of funds made from claims, they realized they had to do something,” he added.
Hooker recently attended a Preliminary DFIRM Community Coordination (PDCC) meeting along with FEMA, Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) and other contractors regarding flood mapping and the Deer Steele Watershed.
“Basically that was the preliminary meeting and they’re doing some more studies of the Deer Creek and Steele Bayou Watershed to see how it will affect some of the new flood insurance rate maps for the county,” he said to the BOS. “Hopefully they’ll have this wrapped up as there are several stages that it has to go through, but they think they’ll have it wrapped up by January 2023 and that will change some of the Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) for the county and then we’ll have to go back and amend our ordinance at that time.”
Hooker was also informed the Greenville Harbor Dikes Study was finalized.
“They were trying to check to see how much protection the other Lake Ferguson homes get on that dike being there and so their conclusions were favorable to Washington County,” he said. “I think they were favorable because they basically said they’re going to leave things exactly how they are instead of trying to increase houses that are over there, so, it worked out well for us.”
A full study still has to be conducted to identify whether aspects of the area will remain the same hazard wise, but the county’s ordinance will have to be updated to provide for the new map numbers which will be revisited in the next few months.
