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Flood Plain Status May Change For Residents

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: December 14, 2008

ZEPHYRHILLS - Residents of southeast Pasco County could learn this week whether they will have to buy or renew their flood coverage in the coming years as state officials begin unveiling revised flood maps for the county.

The first revised maps, drawn up by the Southwest Florida Water Management District, will cover about 3,600 parcels in the east Zephyrhills and the Zephyr Lake watersheds. The watersheds include the city of Zephyrhills along with properties on Fort King Road and U.S. 301 as far north as Clinton Avenue.

The maps will be available for review at a 4 p.m. Thursday open house at the Zephyrhills City Council chambers, 5335 Eighth St.

The maps will be the first update for the 100-year flood plain in more than 25 years. Most of the existing flood plain maps date from the 1970s and '80s, said Mark Hammond, director of the resource projects department at Swiftmud.

The new maps are the results of sophisticated aerial mapping of the county done in 2004. During those flyovers, lasers were used to calculate the height of the land, creating extremely precise topographic maps of the county, Hammond said.

The precision of those maps means some people who have never been considered part of a flood plain may find themselves in one now, Hammond said.

"It may be they've always been in the flood plain," Hammond said Thursday. "The maps just weren't as accurate before."

The new maps promise to shift about 2,200 properties into the flood plain, Hammond said. About half the 2,100 properties already in the flood plain will be shifted out, he said.
Swiftmud officials will be on hand to show property owners exactly where their land sits relative to the floodplains, Swiftmud spokeswoman Robyn Felix said last week.

The 100-year floodplain represents an area where, on average, there's a 1 percent chance of flooding in a given year. It doesn't mean, as some people assume, a property will flood only once in a century.

Over the next six months, Swiftmud will roll out more maps covering about two-thirds of Pasco County. The areas being updated were chosen by county officials because of a history of flooding, Hammond said.

The new maps must be approved by Pasco County and by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to become official, Felix said. That process could take as long as a year, longer if landowners challenge results that move them into the flood plain.

Similar revisions were recently finished in Hillsborough County.

The FEMA flood maps are used to determine what property owners can do with their land and whether they need to buy often-costly flood insurance to protect their property. Development in recent years has altered the landscape in ways that may put property in a floodplain that never was before.
Swiftmud has notified 3,470 property owners in the two Zephyrhills flood plains the new maps may change their status.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201.

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