Flood maps for YC years away

New flood insurance maps for Yuba City - and possible mandatory flood insurance - are years away.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will not begin revising its flood insurance maps for Yuba City and parts of Sutter County north of Stewart Road until 2009, said Eric Simmons, a FEMA engineer.

“We’ve told officials for Yuba City we’ll start that in 2009,” said Simmons.

The FEMA engineer gave no time frame for how long it would take to finish remapping Yuba City once it started.

“I don’t want to give out ballpark figures,” said Simmons.

Simmons met with Sutter County and Yuba City officials earlier this month to brief them on the progress of flood insurance maps.

The agency is digitizing flood insurance rate maps in flood-prone areas throughout the country. In the process, it is also taking another look at flood risks. That could mean that areas once thought to be protected by levees from a 1-in-100 flood could be redrawn into special flood hazard insurance zones which require holders of federally backed mortgages to buy more expensive coverage.

FEMA’s goal is to come up with digital flood maps for all of Sutter County including Yuba City. The extensive project is being done in two parts.

Some areas of south Sutter County have already received proposed flood insurance rate map revisions which place large areas south of Stewart Road into special flood hazard insurance zones.

Those maps - which include the Natomas Basin - are being redrawn because studies are showing the levees do not provide adequate protection against a 1-in-100 flood.

The next step toward new digitized flood insurance maps for south Sutter County will occur this winter when the agency releases revised preliminary digital maps with flood insurance zones in south Sutter County and the Natomas Basin.

Simmons expects those maps will be little changed from the previous round of proposed maps issued last year.

“It will continue to propose large areas in a special flood hazard area,” said Simmons.

But the agency will remove two areas near Shanghai Bend in Yuba City from special flood insurance zones that were opposed by local officials.

FEMA says that people living behind levees should purchase flood insurance because levees carry risks.

Even if Yuba City is not in a special flood insurance zone, it still may not be totally out of the water - a broken levee south of the city could back up toward south Yuba City, according to maps drawn for a setback levee project at Star Bend.

With concerns mounting that Yuba City will be mapped into a special flood insurance zone before levees can be brought up to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers standards, local officials saw the news as somewhat encouraging.

“It gives us a little more time,” said George Musallam, Yuba City’s Public Works Director.

Sutter County Supervisor Dan Silva said the possibility of getting levees fixed by 2011 was “pretty good.”

Appeal-Democrat reporter John Dickey can be reached at 749-4711. You may e-mail him at jdickey@appealdemocrat.com