Rebuild quickly? Cost could be sharply higher insurance costs

The city of Columbia will allow some flooded-out homeowners until the end of December to get building permits under less stringent floodway construction rules.

Those rules, which take advantage of Federal Emergency Management Agency-approved exemptions for rebuilding flood damaged homes, are less stringent than new rules likely to go into effect next year.

Any homeowner in the affected area, which lies below the Lake Katharine dam, who chooses to get a building permit under the existing FEMA flood insurance rate map will be able to start rebuilding quickly. But, next year, they likely will have to pay sharply higher flood insurance rates, city officials told a group of some 45 Cross Creek neighborhood residents Monday night.

Specifically, the exemption through December will apply to about 70 homeowners who live in the Cross Creek area on sections of Burwell Lane, Rickenbaker Road, Kilbourne Road and Downing Street, according to a city flood insurance rate map. The special rules only apply to that area.

“We definitely want you to rebuild. But we don’t want you to get that (new) premium and say, ‘Oh my gosh – what happened?’ ” city engineer Dana Higgins told the residents.

Higgins estimated flood insurance premiums would increase to $1,800 per year from $400 for a $100,000 home, if the homeowner chooses to get a building permit under the rules in effect through December.

After Jan. 1, new federal floodway standards likely will require homeowners who get building permits to rebuild their homes at a somewhat higher elevation. The new standards are based on a new FEMA-approved flood insurance rate map, which delineates flood hazard areas. Building a house at a higher elevation could add tens of thousands of dollars to any reconstruction costs, some homeowners estimated.

“I’m confused – my house was in a lake,” said Antonio Di Giacomantonio, whose 1 1/2-story house on Downing Street was filled by more than six feet of water.

He wanted to know if the new standards will require his house to be raised by the two feet – which officials said was likely – what good that would do if his house is flooded with six feet of water again.

Higgins replied the expected new standards don’t guarantee that Di Giacomantonio wouldn’t get flooded out again, just that he would pay lower annual insurance premiums. He said the new standards are expected to put the floor of a house level with the height that a flood would attain once every 100 years. The flood that ravaged parts of Columbia early last month was more extreme –said to be a once in 1,000-year torrent.

Whether to get a new building permit before December is just one of a host of challenges and dilemmas facing the approximately 50 Cross Creek area residents who attended a city-sponsored meeting at the Heathwood Recreation Center.

On Oct. 3, approximately 60 homes on the east and west sides of Gills Creek, just below Lake Katharine, were flooded out. Most now are uninhabitable and require complete or extensive reconstruction.

These days, many families in the lower-lying parts of the Cross Creek area are paying rent for a temporary home, while still paying a mortgage on their flooded-out home, or they are living with friends or relatives.

In the days ahead, the families must decide: whether to sell their house or rebuild; how high above ground to rebuild; where to get the money to rebuild; and calculate the possible reduced resale value of their home if they rebuild. Many have had numerous meetings with insurance adjusters, contractors and officials of all kinds: city, county and federal.

Another major meeting for people who lost homes will take place Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at Kathwood Baptist Church at 4900 Trenholm Road. It is sponsored by Richland County Council.

An earlier version of this story did not make it clear the special building permit exception through December only applied to the Cold Creek area below Lake Katharine dam.

This story was originally published November 9, 2015 at 9:31 PM with the headline "Rebuild quickly? Cost could be sharply higher insurance costs."