FEMA rules may require more than 1,800 East Baton Rouge Parish homeowners to elevate their homes or sell them to the government for demolition because of the 2016 floods — but Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome isn't identifying who they are yet.
The city-parish was preparing to send out letters informing the residents of their situation, but Broome said on April 30 that those letters were on hold. That announcement came days after Livingston Parish leaders told 1,221 residents about the same problem, drawing an outcry from shocked homeowners.
"While I respect the federal government and its guidelines, there must be a better way for our people who work hard every day and have been more than resilient in the face of adversity," Broome said in a statement.
Officials in other parishes have already followed FEMA rules and informed owners of their "substantially damaged homes." Ascension did so nearly five years ago, months after the historic flood, and Livingston did so a few weeks ago.
FEMA has pressured East Baton Rouge and Livingston to send the letters now because of 2019 audits that found the parishes did not properly assess damage and permits after the floods. The audits threatened to limit future federal aid if the failures weren't rectified.
In Livingston, the letters -- which come nearly five years after the painstaking rebuilding from the floods -- have already caused problems for some homeowners.
Ron Polozola and Sara Wall, a couple in their 70s who have lived in the Denham Springs area more than 30 years, were trying to sell their home, which was restored after the 2016 flood. The potential requirement for elevation scared the buyer off, the couple said.
"If they had told us (in 2016)," Polozola said, "we would have done something different."
In a meeting with Ron, Sara and dozens of other residents, Livingston officials acknowledged that they should have informed homeowners in 2016 but failed to do so. The officials said they also had an opportunity to tell residents a year ago but were sidetracked by the pandemic.
LIVINGSTON — Dozens of unhappy Livingston Parish homeowners had plenty of questions, a few tears and their share of demands for parish governm…
Livingston Parish Councilman Garry "Frog" Talbert said his parish decided to inform residents because, officials have been told those people might not have access to federal aid after a future flood.
"Given that situation, I think it's really negligent, you know, to not at least inform them of their problem," he said.
A question from FEMA HQ
A home is substantially damaged if its flood damage is 50% or more of its value, excluding land. The homes must also be in a high-risk flood area and sit at an elevation that is below the height of a benchmark flood.
If owners of substantially damaged homes don't elevate or take a buyout, they may not be able to get flood insurance or permits for major construction, among other possible consequences.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has East Baton Rouge Parish under the microscope over the way the city-parish allowed flooded homeowne…
East Baton Rouge officials wouldn't say how many homes meet those criteria. Reports obtained through open records requests show that, as of early October, there were 1,803 of them.
As Livingston's letters went out late last month, FEMA officials asked city-parish officials when the Baton Rouge letters were going to be mailed, email exchanges show. Darrin Dutton, a FEMA insurance and floodplain supervisor, told city-parish officials that questions about the parish's compliance were coming from the agency's headquarters in Washington.
Robert L. Joyner, an engineer in the city-parish subdivision engineering office, told Dutton that officials had been planning to send out the letters in batches of 300 or so so his small staff could manage the expected rush of questions from residents. But staffers weren't able to hit that target with the first batch of letters.
"We did about 100 but ran out of envelopes," Joyner wrote on April 21.
After Broome's April 30 announcement about halting the letters, a top administrator wrote back to Dutton to explain the delay.
Kelvin Hill, assistant chief administrative officer for Broome, said the "content of the letters could change to include more detailed funding information & direction" after Broome's talks with FEMA and others.
"We are trying to ensure that we have a complete plan for how to help & support our residents," Hill wrote on April 30.
ST. AMANT — John and Sharon Pugh's two adult sons and their cousins stacked sandbags and put five pumps around their one-story house last Augu…
On Friday, Mark Armstrong, spokesman for the city-parish, said that officials expect to have a conference call with FEMA officials this week to begin addressing Broome's concerns. He couldn't say how quickly the talks would lead to the letters being mailed.
The city-parish has also already taken other steps to get in compliance. Last year, the Metro Council adopted new procedures on substantial damage determinations in a future disaster.
Why FEMA requires the letters
FEMA requires substantially damaged homes to elevate or sell because it doesn't want homeowners to keep rebuilding in areas that regularly flood. When that happens, it raises premiums and costs to the national flood insurance program, which is subsidized by taxpayers across the U.S.
Roy Wright, the former chief executive for the flood insurance program and former associate FEMA administrator, said the agency should speak clearer and quicker — and might show too much patience at times.
But he said that FEMA is geared toward working with communities because the law gives FEMA only blunt tools to bring them in line: first taking flood insurance discounts away, then putting communities on probation and making policyholders pay a $50 surcharge, and then halting the sale of flood insurance.
"Those are the legal tools they have and so their inclination is to collaborate and work and find a path forward," Wright said.
He added that FEMA will eventually force the issue to bring communities into compliance.
DONALDSONVILLE — About one-fifth of the homes in Ascension Parish reviewed so far for flood damage have crossed a national flood insurance thr…
Wright, who became the president and CEO of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety in 2018, was still working for FEMA during the 2016 flood. He said he met with local officials in the fall of 2016 and spring of 2017 about the issue of substantial damage letters.
"We were clear with them then what the right answer was, and there was not going to be some kind of waiver. There was not going to be some kind of other path," Wright said.
Wright said the incentive for communities to follow the rules upfront — as Ascension did — is that they are not in the position that Livingston and Baton Rouge are now in five years later.
The FEMA audit had also prompted a separate review of East Baton Rouge's flood insurance rating, which can affect discounts on the premiums paid by tens of thousands of policyholders in the city-parish. A third-party contractor has since recommended that FEMA grant a rating that would maintain city-parish's 15% discount, city-parish records show.
FEMA declined to address that recommendation or how the current damage assessment problems in East Baton Rouge might affect its final decision on future insurance ratings discounts.
A less preferred option
City-parish officials then in the administration of former Mayor-President Melvin "Kip" Holden had sent out an army of contract inspectors to assess more than 34,000 homes in the months after the 2016 flood. But, three years later, the FEMA auditors said they could only find evidence that 267 properties out of at least 3,325 homes suspected of having substantial damage had received notification letters.
City parish officials responded to auditors that they had taken an alternate option offered in FEMA rules to notify homeowners when they get their permits, instead of proactively sending out letters. FEMA auditors noted in an August 2019 letter that, while the option is available, it isn't preferred.
Homeowners will begin repairs and hire architects without permits, the auditors noted. As a result, they won't take into account the elevation requirements for substantially damaged homes, a risk explained in the FEMA rules.
"The Parish is now in a situation cited as a challenge to the second option of waiting on the property owner," the auditors wrote.
That original tally of 3,325 has since been winnowed to 1,803, city reports show.
Within the next two weeks, FEMA will have 10 two-person teams of inspectors doing damage assessments of the 10,000 to 12,000 Ascension Parish …
In contrast, officials in the administration of former Ascension President Kenny Matassa took the FEMA-preferred, proactive approach. They too sent out parish and contract inspectors and later mailed out more than 1,570 substantial damage letters to homeowners in the months after the flood.
At the time, the tally represented close to a quarter of all flooded structures in the parish, prompting hand-wringing from council members and concern from residents who saw the letters as yet another blow in an uncertain and emotional moment.
Officials in Ascension say they have since passed their post-flood audits without red flags and have maintained their flood insurance ratings.
