http://www.bakersfield.com/119/story/92549.html

FEMA reassesses some Sacramento levees, requiring flood insurance

By SAMANTHA YOUNG, | Wednesday, Jan 3 2007 7:15 PM

Last Updated: Wednesday, Jan 3 2007 7:15 PM

The federal government on Wednesday announced it is reversing an earlier decision and redrawing flood maps for a fast-growing region near the state capital, acknowledging the risk of a potentially catastrophic flood is greater than originally believed.

The decision is based on the government’s assessment that the levees are substandard and don’t meet the government’s criteria of 100-year flood protection. It could have a direct impact on home owners and developers in the sprawling Natomas neighborhood north of downtown.

Property owners who have federally backed mortgages will be required to buy federal flood insurance, and insurance rates could double in the basin, said Frank Mansell, a FEMA spokesman.

Building restrictions also could be imposed once the new maps are adopted in November.

“This is just one more example of how serious the problem is,” said Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, who has introduced legislation that would make it harder for development in flood plains throughout California. “The reality is that we live in an area that is of high risk.”

The Natomas basin is a giant sink that is bordered by the Sacramento and American rivers and includes the Arco Arena, home to the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. Flood experts say it could be submerged under more than 15 feet of water if the levees failed.

FEMA’s decision for the region could be a prelude to similar designations elsewhere in California’s Central Valley, home to some of the state’s most explosive suburban growth in recent years.

State and federal governments are taking another look at the widespread flood risks in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated large swaths of the Gulf Coast.

The government’s decision this week also highlights the fragility of 1,600 miles of earthen levees built in the 19th century to protect California farmland. Thousands of homes now sit behind many of those levees.

Many residents in Sacramento, Sutter and Yuba counties have been told their homes and businesses do not have the flood protection they thought they had, said Ricardo Pineda, chief of the floodplain management branch at the California Department of Water Resources.

In Sacramento, Natomas property owners with federally backed mortgages will be required to buy flood insurance as early as November 2007, when the new flood maps are scheduled to be finished, according to a FEMA timeline outlined in a Dec. 29 letter to Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo and obtained by The Associated Press.

The designation also could mean the return of building restrictions to the region, where flood risks essentially halted development for nearly a decade in the 1990s.

“We are going to be assessing our options,” said Fargo, who said she received an e-mail copy of the letter Wednesday morning. “We know we have some pretty serious decisions in the weeks ahead.”

The Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency discovered weaknesses in the levees surrounding Natomas last spring. It has begun a $370 million project to upgrade the system to 200-year flood protection, twice the protection required by FEMA.

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