Arkansas Official Calls FEMA Flood Plans a 'Scam'

05/05/2010

The Federal Emergency Management Agency recently recommended that homeowners in one Arkansas community increase their protections against floods.

However, one Trumann Levee District official is now calling these suggestions a scam to raise money, according to a recent report by the Associated Press. FEMA is currently finishing a Flood Map Modernization Plan aimed at determining the necessary levees and insurance premiums for flood-risk areas.

Many of these maps provide more protection than necessary - even in the worst-case flooding scenario, according to the wire service.

"FEMA is taking an area of debt that they have and they are trying to expand, and they are trying to get money, and this is the only way they have to do it," Rob Rash, chief engineer and CEO of the St. Francis Levee District, told a group of concerned residents.

The National Flood Insurance Program operated by FEMA is currently some $20 billion in debt, according to the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies. NFIP premiums start at $119 a year and are subject to increase with the risk-level and value of property insured.

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