Tahoe Keys flood insurance quagmire

5/09 Tahoe Mt. News unedited

By Kathryn Reed

An eight-month ordeal that cost some South Shore residents thousands of unnecessary dollars, and countless hours of phone calls and research should be resolved this month.
Thanks to the Federal Emergency Management Agency entering the computer age, the July 3, 1978, flood zone map for the 900-plus Tahoe Keys homeowners was altered as it was scanned into digital format.
The Sept. 26, 2008, map ended up showing Venice Drive drifting into the meadow, Texas Street ending in a canal and other properties submerged or with great potential to be during a major flood.
What seems to an innocent mistake that could easily be fixed by comparing the paper maps of 1978 to the digitized 2008 version and then having the latter match the former has been anything but simple to correct.
A revision to the September map should be on the books this month.
Homeowners were the first to figure out something was amiss. Federally insured lenders require homeowners to have flood insurance if their property resides in a 100-year flood plain.
John Nemes received a letter from Bank of America on Dec. 13, 2008, saying his Kokanee Way house that he’s owned since 1983 needed to have flood insurance because of the September FEMA map.
“Low-risk flood insurance is very inexpensive. High-risk flood insurance is a premium. They put a lien on my house. They charged me interest on the lien,” Nemes said. As of press time he was still wrestling with BofA to get his money back.
Before FEMA decided it had made a mistake, Nemes along with others in the South Lake Tahoe neighborhood paid civil engineers for a certificate of elevation to prove their property was not at risk of flooding. The lowest point on Nemes’ property is 4.5 feet above the threat of flooding.
Nemes is mad at the city, mad at FEMA and mad at BofA.
Eric Simmons, senior engineer with FEMA in Oakland, said city officials, including then Mayor Mike Weber, saw the September map before it became official.
Weber said this is not true.
“To my knowledge, former Mayor Weber was never involved in meetings on this matter and I never participated in them as well,” City Manager Dave Jinkens said.
Jinkens wrote Simmons on March 13 seeking a revision to the September map. A March 25 response said the agency would see what it could do.
Christian Svensk, associate planner with the city, has been the point man to clean up the mess. He says FEMA did notify the city the maps were being digitized, but nothing more.
“… it wasn’t a revision. They said they were not changing the flood plain so there was no formal review period or notice for these maps,” Svensk explained. “FEMA is responsible for the incorrect map. We did not seek that map and force it upon people. There is no sign-off. They don’t follow-up and say are you good with this. It put us in a bad position.”
On April 9, Simmons toured the Keys to see for himself how the September map didn’t reflect reality. He also met with several homeowners. After that meeting, Keys owners were given until May 8 to comment on the draft revise.
The one beneficiary of the September map seems to be Dover Street, which had been in the flood zone before. Bob Henderson had to have flood insurance when he refinanced a handful of years ago. The 1978 map showed the meadow coming to Tahoe Keys Boulevard, which means his house would be in that meadow.
His lender has refunded his flood insurance premium.
Colorado Court still is at risk, according to FEMA, from the Upper Truckee River, not Lake Tahoe.