New maps flood Sutter County

Flood control officials hoping Sutter County voters approve funding to fix levees are pointing to what they call the blackest cloud on the horizon — new federal maps that could place virtually the whole county into a flood hazard zone.

Preliminary charts released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency appear to place Yuba City, Live Oak and most of the county into the Feather River's floodplain — and at risk for surging insurance costs and even a development freeze. Only the Sutter Buttes and the south county town of Pleasant Grove would remain outside the hazard zone.

Though FEMA's final, binding flood maps are not due for at least another year, leaders of the Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency hope to use their arrival to persuade property owners who must approve about $80 million in construction bonds for levee repairs that would lift the area out of flood-risk status. Without a yes vote, they said Thursday, residents would face not just higher insurance bills but a freeze on most building permits after 2015 under Senate Bill 5, which bars building permits in areas unprotected from a 200-year peak flood.

"We have to do it as a region, because we all benefit from this protection," said Yuba City Mayor Kash Gill, one of the city's two members of the flood agency board. Without shored-up levees, he said, "everything comes to a screeching halt. Economically, that would be a disaster for us."

The mail-in ballot is expected to run from February to April. A majority of landowners in Sutter and southern Butte counties must approve a new property assessment, which would go toward upgrading 31 miles of flood walls on the Feather River's western bank from Yuba City to the Thermalito Afterbay. Federal and state funding would then add another $130 million.

The upgrades are meant to shorten the time property owners in Sutter and Butte counties must pay higher insurance rates as FEMA strips local levees of their certification to withstand a once-in-a-century peak flood. The federal agency's new flood-risk maps are expected to take effect as early as fall 2011, causing insurance premiums for a $250,000 to jump from about $348 a year to more than $1,400. Similar hikes took effect south of Stewart Road last year.

Far more threatening in the long run, though, are the possible constru tion curbs if levees are not upgraded, said Dan Peterson, Sutter County's water resources chief. In addition to the building restrictions SB 5 could bring, new buildings would have to be built far above ground level to clear expected flood crests in much of Sutter County — as high as 14 feet in some parts of Tudor in the south.

The Sutter Butte flood agency plans town hall meetings and a publicity campaign to show residents the benefits of a levee overhaul. Even so, spokeswoman Kim Floyd admitted, a lengthy recession and the passage of time since the devastating 1955 flood could challenge those asking for money to help prevent the next disaster.

"People will buy a lottery ticket with 200 million-to-1 odds thinking they have a chance," she said. "But if you tell some people they have a 1-in-200 chance of getting flooded, they'll brush it off."

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Howard Yune at 749-4708 or hyune@appealdemocrat.com.