Flood Map to Cut Cost of Insurance

With half of the $1.3-billion Santa Ana River widening project completed, homeowners in the area are eligible for reductions in their mandatory flood insurance premiums, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) announced Monday.

Rohrabacher said the Federal Emergency Management Agency will release map revision letters this week to officials of nine cities: Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Orange, Santa Ana and Westminster.

Officials said that the private insurance carriers used by about 30,000 homeowners in those cities will immediately reduce yearly flood insurance rates, which can top $800.

Homeowners must take the initiative, however, by sending a written request for lower rates, along with the map revision letter, to their insurers.

The letter, officials said, will state that the deepening and widening of the river channel has reduced the likelihood of serious flooding to once in 100 years from once in 70.

Once completed in 2000, the federal Santa Ana Mainstream Project, which includes the construction of dams in San Bernardino and Riverside counties near the river’s source, will reduce the likelihood of flooding to once in 190 years.

“The Santa Ana River has always been a rogue river,” said County Supervisor Jim Silva, who joined Rohrabacher at a news conference in Fountain Valley’s Victoria Park. “It has now settled down.”

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Watershed Rate Cut

Flood insurance costs to drop for floodplain homeowners.