Startup’s no flood zone, say residents

Published 12:01 am Friday, April 22, 2011

STARTUP — People in this community east of Sultan were shocked earlier this year to learn that they soon could be living in a special flood-hazard area.

To the best anyone can recall, this unincorporated area north of the Skykomish River had never flooded — at least not since the late-19th

century, when raised railroad tracks were built, creating a dike between their community and the river.

New guidelines from the Federal Emergency Management Agency intentionally ignored flood protection from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks or nearby U.S. 2. That’s because neither of these raised structures is certified as a levee.

Now, 285 households in the area might have to start buying federal flood insurance unless FEMA changes its flood-mapping guidelines. By suddenly finding their homes listed in a 100-year floodplain, the new designation threatens to lower property values and restrict what people can build on their land.

“They’re stripping us of money and our rights,” said Renette Villella, 52, who has lived in Startup for three decades. “The big thing for me personally is decreased property values. I’ve always looked at our property (as an investment) and maintaining it is a way for it to appreciate, not to depreciate.”

Similar situations have cropped up around the country as FEMA has updated its flood maps. The issue has even reached the U.S. Senate, with senators asking the agency to end the practice of disregarding some levees and other flood-control structures in its updated maps.

Villella said that FEMA’s maps, which aren’t final yet, predict that more than 4 feet of water could inundate her living room. Nobody in four generations of her husband’s family ever reported anything close to that, she said. Plus, she added, water had never reached the house since it was built in the 1920s.

Now, Villella and dozens of her neighbors are banding together to appeal their flood designation. Leading the charge is a part-time Startup resident with a background in corporate risk management. Scott Lange, 55, has organized community meetings, including one on Thursday night. He’s also hired a hydrologist to back up their argument.

“Early on in this process, nobody was aware of it,” he said. “I went door to door and people looked at me like I was crazy.”

He said he was particularly upset because he made sure to check that his home sat outside a floodplain when he bought it in 2005.

“I’m really not sure what they’re thinking down at FEMA,” he said. “They know they’ve put a lot of communities around the country in the same position as Startup.”

Many in Startup, with a population of about 900 people, now are scrambling to ready an appeal of their floodplain designation ahead of a May 12 deadline. They’re also working to certify the railroad tracks as a levee.

They’ve convinced their county councilman, Dave Somers, and the Snohomish County executive, Aaron Reardon, to take up their cause. A week ago, Somers and Reardon sent a joint letter to FEMA asking for a 90-day extension of the appeal deadline.

“I want to get some assurances from FEMA that there’s going to be time out on this whole process,” Somers said.

In addition to Startup, some homes on Fern Bluff Road near Monroe are affected, he said.

The county actually created the preliminary flood maps for the Startup area, working under contract for FEMA and applying the federal agency’s rules.

Officials at FEMA’s national headquarters said they won’t delay the appeal deadline. They have promised to hold off on putting the new risk maps into effect until they figure out better ways to calculate the likelihood of flooding.

“We have determined that an improved approach will enable FEMA to provide maps that more precisely reflect the flood risk experienced by families living behind levees, but it will take us some time to finalize a new approach,” spokeswoman Rachel Racusen said. “In the meantime, FEMA is withholding finalizing flood maps for communities with levees who could be impacted by a new approach that more closely reflects the flood risk in their area.”

That hasn’t done much to assuage fears in Startup, where homeowners worry about having to pay $350 to $700 per year in extra insurance premiums to FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program. Mortgage lenders require the insurance for homes in floodplains. That would be a big burden in an area where many people earn low to moderate incomes.

Lange and Villella, his neighbor, suspect that FEMA wants more people to buy flood insurance to broaden the risk pool. That would help the agency’s finances after billions of dollars in claims it paid out after major disasters, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“I don’t think it’s a sinister plot, but I think there’s certainly some reality to that,” Lange said. “That means bringing in people who believe they have lower risk and forcing them into the underwriting pool.”

Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com.