Corps expands flood zones in Mobile and Baldwin Counties

The first question that comes to my mind with this announcement — will insurance companies increase premiums or worse yet, cancel more homeowner policies?

From the Press-Register,

“Emergency management officials say an updated storm surge map for Mobile and Baldwin counties reinforces the idea that only low-lying areas near waterways are likely to flood during hurricanes. The main change for Mobile is an expansion of the areas near downtown, Dog River and Prichard that could be impacted by surge from a Category 4 or 5 storm. For the Eastern Shore, the main change is an expansion of areas that could be affected by storms of all sizes, from Category 1 on up, particularly areas south of Point Clear and around Weeks Bay. The area north of Creola and east of U.S. 43 is also now believed to be more prone to flooding, particularly with strong storms, according to the latest predictions.

The map suggests that most of Mobile and Baldwin counties will never flood. It was created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Hurricane Center.

In Mississippi, officials with the Jackson County Emergency Management department said updated maps for Jackson County have not been released yet.

“The changes didn’t reduce the flood zones in any appreciable way. From a planning perspective, it didn’t really change what we believe will happen in a storm,” said John Kilcullen, a plans and operations officer with the Mobile Emergency Management Agency.

Officials said changes on the map are the product of better topographical information in the flood zones and experience from recent storms.

“We’ve got a lot of new information,” said Ronnie Adair, deputy director of Mobile’s emergency agency. “We’ve been through a lot of storms over the last several years. We now have historical data with storms hitting us from the east, the west, or running up the middle of the bay.”

For the full story, see Storm-surge map expands flood zones in Mobile, Baldwin counties.