Status of the Revised Flood Plain Maps – January 2010

The Vogel Creek Project

The Vogel Creek expansion project was completed in late 2008. With the completion of this project, the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) projects that all IF homes east of Antoine will be taken out of the flood plain and that the flood plain will be contained within the banks of Vogel Creek.

In early 2009, HCFCD projected that they would have all submissions to FEMA by mid 2009 and hoped that FEMA would produce revised flood maps for this area by late 2009/early 2010. This did not happen. In 2009, HCFCD found out that they would not be able to submit a conditional letter of map revision (CLOMR) for just the Vogel Creek project. The CLOMR would need to be included in the submission for another HCFCD project that is downstream from IF. This pushed the submission process into 2010.

Per a conversation with HCFCD earlier this month, this is the current time table they are looking at:

1. On January 11, 2010, HCFCD submitted a technical letter of map revision to FEMA which includes the Vogel Creek Project. HCFCD expects FEMA to take up to 6 months to review this. Please note that FEMA has apparently told some people that the process only takes 90 days. That has not been HCFCD’s experience.

2. HCFCD is working on a conditional letter of map revision (CLOMR) and expects that it will be submitted to FEMA in July 2010 after the technical letter per #1 above is approved.

3. Once the CLOMR is submitted, HCFCD will begin work on the Letter of Map Revision (LOMR.) The LOMR will be for a larger project that Vogel Creek is part of.

Once the technical letter, CLOMR and LOMR have all made it through the review process, FEMA will issue revised flood plain maps for the east side of IF. As noted above, it is projected that all homes on the east side of IF will come out of the flood plain. This means that east side residents will be rezoned into zones with much lower flood insurance rates.

HCFCD wants us to remind you to always carry flood insurance on your home. Do not drop your flood insurance if you are rezoned into a lower risk zone. This is Houston.
Flooding from heavy rainstorms is a way of life here. Most of the homes in Houston that flooded during Tropical Storm Allison (June 2001) had not flooded before.