Saturday, February 28, 2009

Pending Decertification of Four Mile Run Flood Control

As the following City Council Memorandum shows, the fall-out from Hurricane Katrina is also being felt locally in the neighborhood.

It seems that FEMA has begun re-evaluating their flood control certification practices and have notified the City that the Army Corps of Engineers project no longer satisfies contemporary criteria.

The de-certification of the flood walls is still pending, but it is already having real effects. Last month, at a City Council hearing, Congressman Jim Moran announced that the Four Mile Run restoration work would not qualify for funding from the federal stimulus package, despite the huge amount of time, effort and money that has gone into getting it shovel ready.

According to the memo, the impact of the new flood insurance rate maps (FIRMs) should only be felt by a few properties, but the question still up in the air is what will become of the stream restoration work. That answer and more coming up soon when the Four Mile Run Joint Task Force meets next month.

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