Reprint from the Progress Times - March 7, 2008
©Progress Times 2008 - All Rights Reserved

FEMA gives county more time

 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), after being convinced by Hidalgo County officials that the area’s levees would be reconstructed in less than a year, has decided to delay the release of a revised floodplain map until December 2009.

Godfrey Garza, floodplain administrator and manager for the Hidalgo County Drainage District 1, said the decision comes after talks with FEMA officials.

"Basically, the situation was getting to FEMA and convincing them that we were going to reconstruct the levees so we had to show them a timetable and that the money was available and that we would have it done by 2008," said Garza.

The county now has less than a year to complete almost $40 million of renovations and reconstruction to parts of Western Hidalgo County’s levees. According to Garza, the c

ounty is now waiting for final authorization from the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) to put their plans into motion.

Had FEMA not granted this reprieve, studies had projected that the revised map would require homes and businesses south of Expressway 83 to purchase flood insurance that, collectively, would cost them over $100 million in yearly premiums.

However, once the construction and improvements are complete, the new map will reflect a lowered flood risk.

President of the Mission Economic Development Authority Pat Townsend believes, if FEMA follows through, that the area has dodged a bullet.

"This is very important to continued orderly growth in economic development in this area," said Townsend. "Hidalgo County is the entire metropolitan area and from what the drainage district’s analysis has shown is that the implications by the FEMA remap would have dire consequences to the entire Hidalgo County."