Getting ready for the rains

More than 1,400 sites are expected to be added to flood zone

View file photoA motorcyclist drives through floodwater at the intersection of Russell and Whitney Ranch roads during an Aug. 8, 2008, flash flood. The Clark County Regional Flood Control District is working to reduce future flash flood hazards valleywide, while at the same time proposing the addition of more than 1,400 homes and businesses to the flood zone designation. F. ANDREW TAYLOR/VIEWA recently completed peaking basin near the Cheyenne campus of the College of Southern Nevada is designed to hold flood waters that run over a lowered edge of the channel wall. Advertisement

Dawn Fisler has been an insurance agent in the valley for 21 years, so when one of her clients called asking about flood insurance, she wasn't surprised, initially.

"My client got a letter, which he thought was junk mail at first," Fisler said. "But when he opened it up, the first thing he did was call me."

The letter from the Clark County Regional Flood Control District went out to approximately 1,400 homes and businesses. It told the recipients that they were being alerted to a potential change in their flood zone designation, and that as a result, they may be required to purchase flood insurance when the change is finalized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"Early action on your part could help you keep your flood insurance premiums to a minimum and provide protection of your most valuable investment, your home, from flood damage," the letter stated.

The letter is one of the results of a flood control district study of the Las Vegas Wash that took more than a year to complete. The wash runs from North Las Vegas to Lake Mead. The organization conducts studies on the affected area of projects they are planning, and a number of projects directly affecting the Las Vegas Wash prompted this study. According to Betty Hollister, public information manager for the flood control district, the results don't represent a new and increased risk of flooding to the areas they sent letters to, but a risk that was there prior, which the study that used new improved technology revealed.

"The original study for that area was done in 1991, almost 20 years ago," Hollister said. "Do you remember what your cell phone looked like back then, if you even had a cell phone?"

Hollister said the new study used up-to-date technology and computers, as well as data from the 100-year flood in 1999. A 100-year flood isn't a flood that only happens once in 100 years, it's a large flood that has a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year.

The 1999 flood caused the erosion of the Flamingo Wash bank near the Miracle Mile Mobile Home Park, and a number of homes fell into the wash.

"Most people don't realize when floods aren't covered in their homeowners insurance," Fisler said.

Fisler looked into the particulars in her client's case and discovered that if he waited until the flood zone designation was finalized, flood insurance would cost him nearly $3,000 per year, but if it was purchased prior to that, the rate would be grandfathered in at a price of around $300 per year. These are ballpark figures for a specific client, but Fisler and Hollister are in agreement that the price for insurance will jump drastically once the flood zone designation is finalized, which is one of the reasons the flood control district is getting the word out now.

"The price of insurance will go up when the zone change goes into effect, but not as much as if they got it ahead of time," Hollister said. "We want to be sure that these people are able to buy flood insurance at the reduced rate, as well as let them prepare for a possible flood."

On the home page of the flood control district's Web site, www.ccrfcd.org, there is a blue link labeled Las Vegas Wash, which goes to a page with a number of pertinent links for property owners wondering if their land is affected, including FEMA flood information, a map of the locations of the proposed new flood zone and a tool to search by address or parcel number to find out if a particular property is affected.

"It's going to affect our valley so dramatically," Fisler said. "People are already in a tough economic situation."

That economic situation is making the flood control district's task of spreading the word all that more difficult.

"We're mailing the letters and brochures to the property owner's address, not necessarily the property itself," Hollister said. Some of those are coming back to us because the owner has changed or the property has been foreclosed. Some of the affected properties are bank-owned."

In these cases, the flood control district goes back to the assessor's office to get the updated owner and address. The district has begun the process well in advance of the best estimate of the zone change.

"We've don't make the zone change decision, FEMA does," Hollister said. "We did the study and sent the information in to FEMA, but our best estimate is it won't become official until November or December of 2010."

Contact Sunrise and Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 380-4532.