first on decorahnews.com: Why can property in owners in Spillville get only $35,000 worth of flood insurance, while property owners in Decorah can get $250,000?

Flooding in Spillville on August 23rd (decorahnews.com file photo)

How much flood insurance can you get if you own property in Winneshiek County?  The answer to that question is: "It depends."

As we reported Tuesday, there are two categories of flood insurance, "emergency" and "regular."  Following 2008's flooding, the City of Decorah applied to become part of FEMA's flood insurance program.  FEMA granted Decorah admission to the "emergency" flood insurance program, which sells a maximum of $35,000 of flood insurance protection to property owners in communities which have applied.

But in order to qualify for the "regular" flood insurance program, FEMA requires communities to develop maps showing floodplains in their community--places where the risk of flooding is highest. 

Following the 2008 flooding, there were so many communities in Iowa wanting to become part of the flood insurance program that the regional FEMA office decided they would send representatives to the communities that wanted to join the flood insurance program.  They developed a list of 28 such communities in Iowa--a list which included Decorah.  That's how Decorah was able to qualify for the "regular" program in May of 2011--because of the help of FEMA officials.  Decorah property owners can now qualify for up to $250,000 in flood insurance.

In Spillville, the application to join FEMA's flood insurance program was submitted in September of 2010.  Iowa's State Coordinator of the National Flood Insurance Program, Iowa DNR official Bill Cappuccio, tells decorahnews.com that Spillville "missed by a matter of weeks" being on this list of communities the regional FEMA officials would visit to fast track their participation in the flood insurance program.

As a result, Spillville is still in the "emergency" flood insurance program, with its maximum of $35,000 in coverage.

Cappuccio has been talking with FEMA officials and says the federal government now would be willing to initiate the conversion process for the Spillville flood map, which would allow the community to participate in the NFIP "regular" program.  However, even if Spillville develops a flood risk map that wins FEMA approval, flood insurance policyholders who recently experienced flooding would still have a maximum coverage of $35,000 for that flood.  In other words, help may be on its way--but it's only help in the case of future flooding in Spillville.