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Health & Fitness

FEMA Buttheads

A Redlands man is again fighting FEMA on whether his home is part of a more expensive "high-risk" flood plain. In 1990, his home was then documented to be a full-foot above the 100-year-flood plain.

For the second time since moving to Redlands in 2001, I have to spend a lot of time and money fighting FEMA, which is laughably claiming my house is in a high-risk flood zone – a category that costs me about an extra $400 each year in insurance.

Anyone with a brain could see that my home sits well above and far away from the Zanja creek, which Federal Emergency Management Agency says is my flood threat. Most of Southern California would be a swimming pool long before my house was ever underwater.

FEMA’s latest money grab is nothing more than federal government greed and arrogance. FEMA can just arbitrarily suck money from homeowners simply by redoing maps raising the elevation on the 100-year-flood plain.

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It gets worse: I never received a notice in 2008 telling me that my house was suddenly part of the “high-risk” flood area. I only found this out in 2009 when I gathered documents needed for refinancing.

Compounding the problem is the city of Redlands, which never did a study determining exactly where the “base flood elevation” actually is. If the city had done its job, we would know exactly where the flood plain is and FEMA couldn’t arbitrarily set one whenever it needed more money.

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When my tract home was platted in 1989, a city engineering document filed with the city of Redlands shows my house is an entire foot above the 100-year-flood plain. Yet, in 2003, the first time I refinanced, I had to measure my house and file a form showing that I was above the flood plain.

Whatever.

In 2009, the second time I refinanced, I initially decided against paying the estimated $750 needed to get a surveyor to provide the “elevation certificate” needed dispute the new “high risk” label. At that time, I felt that I didn’t want to pay the money only to lose.

Then, in late 2010, my neighbor told me that his home – slightly lower in elevation than mine -- had the new flood exemption. I quickly shopped for a surveyor and found one who could do the elevation certificate for $550. I jumped on the offer, but could not complete the process before being called up to active duty in January. Resuming the FEMA flood fight was among my top priorities after returning to Redlands and civilian life in October.

I am going to mail my documents this week. I will then have to wait up to 90 days to learn whether my home earns an exemption from FEMA.

FEMA’s arrogance and behavior are mind-boggling. And Washington bureaucrats wonder why nobody trusts them to run our healthcare.

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