At the June 12 meeting of the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees, Supervisor Johnny Vawters issued an update on the properties that had been listed in the new FEMA floodplain maps.
Sumpter had held a special meeting in April to inform residents of the details of the FEMA maps and to offer the help of its consulting engineers, Hennessey, in dealing with FEMA and mortgage holders.
Residents who got letters from their mortgage holders were told they had to carry flood insurance now because of the new maps. Sumpter Township is a part of the National Flood Insurance Program, so reduced insurance rates were available.
On June 12, Vawters reported owners of 79 properties originally signed up for help through the township. Then 12 of those cancelled for various reasons, mainly because they didn’t carry mortgages and therefore the costly flood insurance wasn’t required.
Vawters said 27 LOMAs (Letters of Map Amendment) were issued and approved by FEMA.
An additional 35 applications for LOMAs were submitted to FEMA and are pending approval.
“All are expected to be approved,” Vawters said.
He explained that one out of every four applications are being audited by FEMA, thereby slowing the process a bit.
Vawters said seven more properties have recently signed up and the LOMAs are not quite finished, but these also are expected to be approved.
“So, it appears that ALL the properties that signed up with us should be exempt from having to carry flood insurance, thereby saving our residents $1,000 to $2,000 per year [per property] in insurance costs,” Vawters said.