By David Harry

Staff Writer

A tide of opposition may have swept away revisions to FEMA flood zone maps, but local and federal officials remain uncertain about the replacement mapping program.

Less than two days after officials from South Portland, Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough hosted a joint meeting for residents potentially affected by revisions in local flood zone designations, FEMA officials withdrew the maps.

The maps, which property owners could appeal until Dec. 2, have been withdrawn as FEMA officials are looking to implement the Risk Mapping, Assessment and Planning Program to better locate which properties have a 1 percent chance of getting flooded annually.

The Risk map program will be utilized throughout Cumberland and York counties, said FEMA spokesman Dennis Pinkham. It has been called a “more holistic approach” to determining potential flood zones by Scarborough Town Manager Tom Hall and environmental engineer Bob Gerber of Westbrook-based Sebago Technics.

Pinkham said how many towns along the coast would sign on to the collaborative effort remained unknown Wednesday and Gerber said results could still lead to properties getting newly designated as flood zones. 

Gailey said even as local and FEMA officials met residents from the three towns at South Portland High School last week, it appeared there would be changes coming. He said FEMA officials requested cancellation of the meeting, but with about 1,000 notices sent out to residents of the three towns, it was too late.

“This was more than just putting a note in the door saying meeting cancelled,” Gailey said.

The three town managers welcomed the new process because it allows for more inclusion of data submitted by Gerber. For more than a year, Gerber said he has been creating his own models of how wind and waves from storms will affect shorelines. 

Gerber said his mapping better displays contours and barriers that dissipate waves, which particularly affects areas of the South Portland shoreline. He said he found little to dispute about FEMA findings regarding the Cape Elizabeth shoreline.

Gerber’s studies have cost South Portland $5,000, Gailey said. In Cape Elizabeth, where McGovern said about 400 properties could face higher flood insurance premiums, town officials have allotted $8,000 for Gerber’s work and spent about $5,300.

In Scarborough, Hall said councilors might consider hiring Gerber to study flood zone designations in the Higgins and Pine Point beach areas and the Scarborough Marsh. He estimated about 300 properties were affected by the withdrawn map revisions, but added not all of them were adversely affected because of new designations in a flood or wave zone.

Depending on the scope and size of the study, it could cost Scarborough as much as $22,000, Hall said. 

FEMA has spent $1.6 million each in Cumberland and York counties to revise flood zone maps, Pinkham said.

Pinkham said FEMA and local officials are still working out details on the collaborative agreement, but McGovern said he was optimistic the local cost could be minimized.

“It is too early to judge how much we might incur in costs as part of the Risk MAP process. The early indications are that most of the costs will be borne by FEMA,” McGovern wrote in an e-mail.

Hall said not all residents would be adversely affected by getting placed in flood or high wave zones.

Property owners with mortgages on land placed in high wave velocity zones could end up having to buy flood insurance and also face tighter restrictions on additions and renovations to their properties. 

David Mendelsohn, a Boston-based FEMA Mapping Coordinator, said insurance would be required for the first $250,000 in value on a property as part of National Flood Insurance Program requirements and some lenders might require the full value of the property in flood insurance.

The decision to pull the maps came at the urging of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, but was accompanied by the agreement by local officials to use the Risk MAP process to help identify and mitigate flood hazards.

Collins, the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees FEMA, said in a prepared statement she sent FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate a request to withdraw the maps late last month. Her request followed questions about map determinations even after information was filed by Gerber on behalf of towns and cities throughout the counties.

York and Cumberland counties may be the first areas where the Risk MAP program will be implemented, Gerber said. The program was developed in 2009 and is anticipated to be used through 2014 as the agency seeks to update flood zone maps nationally. 

Staff Writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219