Mississippi Gulf News

Massive tree branches stretch overhead, shading the small brick house decades past its prime. 

Rundown with a rotting carport, it shows every bit of the some 100 years it’s spent on its patch of Midway Avenue. An aged board blocks off the front door. Shutters are missing; windows busted. The inside is an 897-square-foot shell. 

The walls are solid brick; the house sits on a concrete slab. Through the overgrown weeds and algae-seeped walls of the screened-in porch, Rony Hernandez saw his family’s dream home. He grew up doing construction with his father. He was confident he could handle the renovation. 

But those dreams came to a halt during Hernandez’s first trip to the city for building permits. The Ingalls Shipbuilding employee wanted to live where he worked — but fixing up the old home is going to take more than sweat equity.

It might take a miracle. 

Not because of the home itself, but because of the Hurricane Katrina-era regulations that residents say hang over Pascagoula like a dark cloud. In order for a municipality to take part in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), it has to agree to adopt certain building codes for flood zones recommended by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That’s where the “50% rule” comes into play. 

Hernandez’s fixer-upper is valued at just $36,000 and sits about 2 feet below the Pascagoula’s base flood level. Under the current building code, the city can only permit Hernandez half the home’s value in repairs over a 10-year period. Homeowner insurance is skyrocketing along the state’s coastal cities, with one insurance agent seeing increases of 15-70%. Inflation and the overall risk of natural disasters are all contributing to the growing costs. Flood insurance prices are getting steeper on much of the coast, too. 

In 2021, FEMA began using new metrics to determine the costs of the National Flood Insurance Program by assessing a property’s risk, especially its proximity to water.

At first, the rule change only affected new policies. Existing policies didn’t increase until the following year. While some folks may be grandfathered in to lower rates, they will increase each year — usually at 18%. 

Asked about criticism of the 50% rule from Coast locals, FEMA called the policy a compromise: the rule allows investment in flood zones while taking into account the risk of repeated damages.

Officials told to Mississippi on June 7, that they’re working with local and state officials to address concerns.

Pascagoula is low lying. The Gulf waters near Pascagoula are shallow. That means there’s not a lot of room for it to absorb storm surge. Unlike New Orleans, there isn’t a levy built to control it.

Most Pascagoula locals view Katrina as a 100-year storm. They’re not worried about it happening again. 

According to NFIP data, the program saw an average of 51 flood insurance claims from Pascagoula between 1977 and 2004, the year before Katrina. Since Katrina, that number’s dropped to 33 per year. 

“When you look at the number of flood claims, it’s not the issue,” said Pascagoula resident Jimmy Fondren, a Republican candidate for the Mississippi House. “The issue is the mapping … People shouldn’t be told by the federal government what they can and can’t do with their own homes.” 

Pascagoula leadership is figuring out what next steps could help the city. 

It could opt out of FEMA’s flood insurance program altogether to avoid the building requirements it has to impose to be in the program.

Mayor Willis said the city would have to carefully consider making such a move and would only do it if a private insurer was able to step up and back the city in FEMA’s place. 

Willis and other local leaders say they’ve spoken to Congress members about altering the FEMA requirements so Pascagoula wouldn’t have to adopt a 50% rule — but maybe a 100% percent rule — that would allow homeowners in the city to at least make improvements up to the full value of what the house is worth. 

Republican 4th District U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell said he has “made it a priority to work with other members, especially our neighbors from other Gulf Coast districts, to address these problems and provide much-needed relief to our coastal communities.”

“As a Pascagoula native and a lifelong resident of the Gulf Coast, I’ve witnessed the negative impacts of the 50% rule on Pascagoula, especially on young families who can’t afford to live in my hometown. I’ve also seen how cities and towns across the Gulf Coast struggle because of delays in reimbursements and other FEMA programs.”

https://mississippitoday.org/2023/06/07/fema-regulations-dash-hopes-reclaiming-pascagoula-homes/ 

Original source can be found here.