Community Support Required for National Flood Insurance Availability

Recent events in Wisconsin — specifically, the flooding and draining of Lake Delton — provide a harsh reminder that the NFIP is about more than just providing flood insurance.  For NFIP coverage to be available in a community, that community is required to abide by federal policies intended to reduce the potential devastation from flooding.

Lake Delton, Wisconsin wasn’t signed up with the NFIP.

Seen at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Residents and landowners affected by the Lake Delton breach spent Wednesday seeking an explanation for why the community opted out of a free national floodplain insurance program that 90% of the state’s flood-prone communities have joined.[...]

The Village of Lake Delton began the paperwork just two weeks ago to rejoin the floodplain insurance program after a dispute with FEMA’s floodplain elevation maps from 2001 caused it to back out. But because of that decision, residents such as Tim Fromm, Tom Pekar and Don Kubenik were not able to obtain flood insurance - which is backed by the federal government - for the homes they built on the shore of Lake Delton within the last few years.[...]

Oopsie.  The lawsuits arising from this should be…entertaining