State officials claim the changes to federal flood insurance policy will raise premiums tenfold without taking into account flood protection systems like Morganza-to-the-Gulf.
Insurance rates are climbing in Louisiana while old suggestions, such as elevating homes, no longer suffice to qualify for affordable coverage. Will McGrew/Télé-Louisiane
By Baley Champagne
Louisiana sued FEMA on June 1 in response to the federal agency’s new system that it uses to calculate flood insurance premiums. Included in the suit are 43 parishes, nine states, local governments and levee districts.
Local leaders argue FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Policy’s (NFIP) Risk Rating 2.0, which was unveiled two years ago to make premiums more equitable, is actually working to raise prices for many Louisianans–in some cases tenfold–while forcing residents to drop coverage altogether. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, who unveiled the suit, called this federal policy a “natural disaster” of its own. "We believe there are legal deficiencies in these poor decisions, and we intend to hold these bureaucrats accountable,” Landry said in a news release.
In Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, where the Morganza-to-the-Gulf Hurricane Protection System of locks, levees and floodgates spanning 98 miles will protect 150,000 coastal residents, Windell Curole said insurance premiums will rise drastically. Curole, who is the executive secretary of the South Lafourche Levee District (SLLD), said his NFIP premium for his home in Lafourche Parish is under $500. Under Risk Rating 2.0, he said it will increase to $7,000 annually.
NFIP's method once followed general insurance practices by evaluating a location by its flood zone and on a Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM), occupancy type, and the Base Flood Evaluation (BFE). John Gregoire of Grand Caillou, who has been a State Farm customer for nearly two decades, said he pays under $300 for flood insurance for his home. "The insurance company told us to go up three feet higher, and we went six feet higher," he said.
Two raised houses in south Louisiana, which survived Hurricane Ida in 2021. Will McGrew/Télé-Louisiane
Ricky Alstos, branch manager of Riviere Insurance Agency in Thibodaux, said that suggestions like this, before Risk Rating 2.0, would save policyholders hundreds of dollars, but not anymore. Alstos noted that Risk Rating 2.0 considers how close one is to the Gulf and how big the house is. The policy also considers the individual flood risk or the cost to rebuild, according to the Congressional Research Service Reports."I am very passionate about this, but if Louisianans want insurance companies to be here, they have to be willing to pay, and not as before,” he said. “The insurance companies were handing out money instead of preparing for the chance of flood hazards."
Rep. Timothy Kerner, Sr., R-Jefferson, who supported HCR 58, which requests Louisiana’s attorney general to seek legal relief against FEMA, said in 2022 he authored HCR 84 that recommended Congress review and reform the new NFIP. "Risk Rating 2.0 is hurting so many people with premium increases,” he said. “FEMA has not been transparent with the methodology, and what we know does not make sense." Kerner added that FEMA is rating homes in south Louisiana by the distance to a body of water but instead, it needs to consider homes that are protected by a 16-foot flood wall, and many homes are raised 12 feet above sea level.
Kerner continued: ”The lawsuit is because FEMA is considering storm surge, rainfall, distance to the water and cost to rebuild. While excluding factors that should be considered such as stricter building codes, levee protection and elevation of homes.”
In South Lafourche, Curole, who has overseen the levee district's projects for over forty years in various capacities, said his district's flood protection and drainage systems are not prone to regular flooding. “We experience an average of 60 inches of rainfall, tidal water and hurricane surge on an annual basis, even as it lies near the Intercoastal Waterway, Bayou Lafourche and its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico."
The historically strong flood protection system in South Lafourche has not exceeded Risk Rating 2.0's expectations, even after it protected all of the district's residential homes and businesses during Hurricane Ida. "That is a 100 percent reduction in hurricane storm-surge flooding between 1985 and 2021," Curole said. “The lack of transparency harms the South Lafourche Levee District’s ability to partner with FEMA and other federal agencies as its Risk Rating 2.0 harms us by devaluing the significant capital investment the levee district has made."