The Kenai Peninsula Borough won’t get kicked out of the federal government’s national flood insurance program. That’s after the borough assembly last week adopted updated flood risk maps covering 47 miles of the Kenai River.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is the driving force behind the new maps. It administers a flood program that insures $46 million worth of property across the Kenai Peninsula Borough.
Some locals, like Frank Turpin, wanted more time to consult with FEMA on the changes. He says the new maps will lower property values and raise construction costs for his Kenai Keys neighborhood by expanding the areas deemed at high risk for flooding. The assembly gave Turpin and his neighbors a little more time – but their efforts were unsuccessful.
“I wish the result were different, but the borough has no choice but now to approve the study,” he said. “Maintaining eligibility for flood insurance and disaster relief overshadows our need for flood elevations reflective of changing conditions in the Kenai River.”
Borough Mayor Peter Micciche said he doesn’t agree with FEMA’s “all-or-nothing” approach to the map updates. In the future, he says he’d support letting some residents opt-out if it didn’t threaten insurance for other property owners.
“We can't risk the coverage for 8000 – the owners of 8000 parcels,” he said.
Turpin and his neighbors say a 2010 landslide along the Killey River spread sediment in the Kenai River that inflated the height of the river bed. They say the maps shouldn’t be updated until that sediment has been fully redistributed.
But it’s hard to know how long it will be before the riverbed returns to its old level. That’s according to Julie Hindman, who’s in charge of floodplain management for the borough.
“Landowners are saying it's decreasing now, but we don't have a timeline on how long that will take,” she said. “Rivers change. Rivers are dynamic. These maps are a snapshot in time, but as long as that segmentation is there, it is increasing that risk.”
The new maps are effective immediately. An interactive map of the new flood areas is available on the borough’s geographic information system website.
