In the wake of last year’s destructive flooding, Rep. Phyllis Mundy (D-Luzerne) convened a meeting Tuesday to discuss a better approach to floodplain management.

A year after the flooding, some Luzerne County residents have made expensive repairs to their flood-damaged homes but may not be in compliance with existing national flood insurance program requirements, putting them at risk of losing their flood insurance. Coming into compliance may require them to pay tens of thousands of dollars more to make further structural and utility changes.

Rep. Mundy said she wants to avoid a repeat of this needless expense and heartache. So she convened a meeting of county, state and federal officials to begin exploring ways to better administer floodplain management ordinances and explain them to residents.

"What we are doing now isn't working," Rep. Mundy said "We need to find a way to do it better."

Most Pennsylvania municipalities administer their own floodplain ordinances, putting the burden of enforcing and explaining the ordinance on local elected officials.

"They are basically volunteers," Rep. Mundy said, adding many of those officials have full-time jobs and are under a tremendous strain when they have to deal with the wake of a disastrous flood.

Rep. Mundy suggested transferring the responsibilities of floodplain management enforcement and outreach to counties, which have more resources. Lycoming County already does that work for its municipalities, and Lebanon County does it for several of its municipalities.

Dan Fitzpatrick, director of the National Flood Insurance Program in the state Department of Community and Economic Development, said some of the best floodplain management is done when there is some county oversight. Fitzpatrick said he will work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to find better ways to administer floodplain ordinances in flood-prone counties.

"We know which counties are most at risk," Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick said DCED would be able to reimburse the counties for half the cost of enforcing the ordinances.

Another idea that emerged from the meeting was having third-party contractors administer floodplain ordinances, but FEMA Planning Specialist Nicole Lick suggested that liability issues may be a deterrent to that.

Lick said West Virginia county government administers floodplain ordinances, and she'll look to see how it works there. Doug Hill, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, said he'll continue to explore options to address the issue.

Also attending the meeting were Rep. Karen Boback (R-Luzerne), Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski (D-Luzerne), DCED's Director of Legislative Affairs Barry Wickes, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency Legislative and Policy Director Vince Hudock, and representatives from the offices of Reps. Mike Carroll (D-Luzerne) and Tarah Toohil (R-Luzerne) and Sen. John Yudichak (D-Luzerne).

NewsClip: Rep. Mundy Convenes Meeting On Floodplain Management

10/1/2012