Residents that live in flood zone areas in the parish can expect a 15 percent reduction on their annual flood insurance bill. That’s because the parish’s planning and zoning department applied for, and received, a Community Rating System certification, which qualified the parish for the reduction.
“CRS is an optional program communities participate in to reduce flood insurance,” Earl Matherne, a planning and zoning administrator, said. “The rating scale starts at 10 and ends at one. One is the best rating a community can get.
“We received an eight rating, which puts us in the 15 percent reduction range right now.”
Matherne gave an example of how the reduction will work.
“A homeowner whose house cost $100,000 normally pays $1,248, but with the reduction the new insurance rate for that same homeowner would be $1,060.80,” he said. “That would be about $88.40 a month for twelve months.”
Matherne says once a community gets a number one rating, flood insurance is reduced by 50 percent annually for residents. Matherne says this is a different rating from the StormReady Certification applied for by the parish’s Emergency Operations Center.
“But once the Emergency Operations Center receives their rating, it will add points to the overall reduction rate in the insurance,” he said. “We are pretty close to getting a seven, which is an additional five percent reduction.”
The parish was able to receive the eight rating because of how well they got out flood zone information to the public, their enforcement of building laws, the maintenance of the parish’s drainage system and quick flood response by the EOC.
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