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AudibleHigh-risk flood zones are expanding this year along significant stretches of Florida’s coastline. In Broward County, nearly 90,000 properties have been moved into a FEMA flood zone. But 80,000 of them were in such a zone prior to ten years ago, when FEMA moved them out – only to add them back in this year. Many will now have to purchase flood insurance.
Former Florida Deputy Insurance Commissioner Lisa Miller talks with the county floodplain manager for an explanation, the reporter who broke the story, and another reporter from Palm Beach County, which is fighting FEMA’s efforts to expand flood zones.
Carlos Adorisio, Floodplain Manager, Unincorporated Broward County, FL
Ron Hurtibise, Business Reporter, South Florida SunSentinel
Anne Geggis, Insurance Reporter, Palm Beach Post
Show Notes
FEMA calls these high-risk flood zones Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA). They are designated on a FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map as zones that begin with the letter “A” or the letter “V” for those living along the coast, subject to additional threat of storm surge. Properties in these zones supposedly have a 1% probability of flooding each year, or about a one-in-four chance every 25-30 years. Some refer to this as the 1-in-100-year flood probability.
FEMA’s 2024 updated maps have moved nearly 90,000 (88,913) properties in Broward County, Florida into a high-risk flood zone. But almost 80,000 (79,689) were in that zone prior to FEMA’s 2014 map update, then removed, and now 10 years later are back in a flood zone. “How did this happen and what’s the science behind it?” asked host Miller.
Carlos Adorisio, Floodplain Manager for the unincorporated area of Broward County, explained that FEMA flood maps are based on studies of two factors: rainfall and coastal storm surge. Maps from the 1980’s and 1990’s reflected most of the county was high-risk. “In 2014, FEMA updated the maps, but they only updated the portion for the rainfall risk and not for the storm surge. There was a lot of development and better modeling and a lot of areas were removed from the 100-year floodplain,” he explained. In its 2024 maps, FEMA updated only the coastal storm surge risk. “There’s been more development, updated storm data, and better computer modeling techniques and mapping,” since the last storm surge studies done in the 1980’s, said Adorisio, who is a Professional Engineer and a Certified Floodplain Manager.
“One of the components of storm surge is the sea level, which is higher than they accounted for in the 80’s and therefore the storm surge is higher in this study,” Adorisio explained. “Now the southern part of the county is lower than the middle and northern sections of the county…and it’s to the point where FEMA believes that the higher storm surge elevation not only goes to I-95, it goes all the way to U.S. 27, which is close to the Everglades levee. That’s why you have those almost 90,000 parcels that are increasing in flood risk and now in the Special Flood Hazard Area,” said Adorisio, who earlier in his career worked for FEMA as a technical consultant for flood maps.
Ron Hurtibise, business reporter for the South Florida SunSentinel, first reported the scope of the 2024 flood map changes. The new high-risk flood zones are primarily located along the 25 miles of Broward County coastline from Pompano Beach south to Hollywood Beach and then extend west across the southern portion of the county into Pembroke Pines, Miramar, and Weston – all the way to U.S. Highway 27 and the Florida Everglades. The updated maps also moved 2,559 properties out of high-risk flood zones. During the podcast, Hurtibise questioned Adorisio how a coastal storm surge from the Atlantic Ocean could reach 21 miles inland.
“They determined that the areas where the South Florida Water Management District has the coastal structures, they determined that the elevation around those coastal structures was low enough for the surge of water to go over that and then move west, as far west as U.S. 27,” said Adorisio.
“Wow,” exclaimed Hurtibise. “Well, one of the worst areas that (Hurricane) Ian flooded a couple years ago was in Central Florida, Volusia County, Orange County, that area. That’s well inland and you wouldn’t think that you would be susceptible to storm surge. But Ian was a rainmaker and it rained a lot. And a lot of those people, most of those people didn’t have flood insurance,” Hurtibise added.
The almost 90,000 property owners in Broward County that now find themselves in a flood zone will need to purchase flood insurance if their structure touches the flood zone and they have a federally-backed mortgage. For those that don’t, “It’s still recommended that the homeowner buy flood insurance but it would not be mandated,” said Adorisio, who is also Assistant Director of the county’s Environmental Permitting Division. He explained just how FEMA flood maps are developed, including getting public input, and the ability of local governments to object to proposed map changes, which he said the city of Pembroke Pines did, eventually losing its appeal.
Objections to FEMA’s updated maps are also happening one county to the north, in Palm Beach County, said Anne Geggis, insurance reporter for the Palm Beach Post, who is married to Hurtibise. FEMA is proposing to move about 5,800 properties there into high-risk zones, and one county south in Miami-Dade County, another 45,420 properties. “What’s interesting in Palm Beach County is that the building officials are fighting back against the new FEMA maps that came out and they actually approved some funding that could eventually result in another map,” Geggis said. Nevertheless, she said, county officials are “really taking flood threats seriously in terms of trying to be prepared for what’s coming,” with flood resilience and mitigation efforts that include a planned high-capacity stormwater pumping station in Delray Beach.
Host Miller said Hurtibise’s article “gave us even further proof that we can’t take a FEMA flood map at face value. About a third of federal flood insurance claims nationwide are from people living outside the so-called high risk flood zones.” Florida makes up the largest share of the 4.7 million National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policies (3.4 million residential) nationwide, with 1.7 million policies. Hurtibise reported another 76,348 Florida properties were covered by private insurance at the end of 2023. About 46% of high-risk properties in Florida have federal flood insurance, compared to 18% of such properties nationwide.
Hurtibise and Geggis live in Broward County and know that “if it rains, it can flood,” as Miller pointed out, having witnessed a three-day rainstorm in June 2024 that dumped up to 12 inches of rain in parts of Ft. Lauderdale, and the historic April 2023 rainstorm that resulted in 3,345 flood claims to the NFIP. “I think a lot of people don’t realize that they’re not covered for flooding under a homeowners insurance policy until they have an emergency like we heard about in Hurricane Ian. A lot of the damage was not insured because they were not coastal areas,” said Geggis. Hurtibise said he and Geggis pay about $600 a year for federal flood insurance for their home, which is in a lower-risk X-zone.
“To me, it seems further proof to something that some of my insurance colleagues and I have said for years,” said host Miller. “If you live in Florida, you should consider yourself in a flood zone, regardless of what a FEMA flood map indicates, not that I want to discount the importance of them. But we know for a fact that people are flooded in X zones, meaning those zones with the lowest risk of flood and we know that those zones certainly need coverage as well.”
Added Adorisio, “The best thing that the homeowner can do is try to get flood insurance so they are able to repair any damage should the flood affect them. That’s the best advice that we can give to everybody. It doesn’t matter which flood zone you are in, buy flood insurance, because the entire South Florida is a flood zone.”
Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode
FEMA Flood Maps and Zones (FEMA)
FEMA Broward County Flood Insurance Risk Maps effective July 31, 2024 (Broward County, FL)
Tens of thousands of South Florida homeowners will be required to buy flood insurance. Are you on the list? (South Florida SunSentinel)
Flood Insurance in Communities at Risk of Flooding (Congressional Budget Office, July 11, 2024)
Private Flood Insurance (Florida Office of Insurance Regulation)
Consumer Flood Risk Awareness and Insurance Study (Fannie Mae, December 2023)
Hurricanes Get the Headlines But Inland Flooding Tops the Disaster List (Insurance Journal, July 25, 2024)
Flood Insurance & Resilience (Lisa Miller & Associates)
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The Florida Insurance Roundup from Lisa Miller & Associates, brings you the latest developments in Property & Casualty, Healthcare, Workers’ Compensation, and Surplus Lines insurance from around the Sunshine State. Based in the state capital of Tallahassee, Lisa Miller & Associates provides its clients with focused, intelligent, and cost conscious solutions to their business development, government consulting, and public relations needs. On the web at www.LisaMillerAssociates.com or call 850-222-1041. Your questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome! Date of Recording 7/25/2024. Email via [email protected] Composer: www.TeleDirections.com © Copyright 2017-2024 Lisa Miller & Associates, All Rights Reserved
