FEMA Delays Flood Map Rollout in SW Illinois

Property owners in southwestern Illinois who worry that new government floodplain maps will force them to buy expensive flood insurance are getting another break.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency says it will delay implementing the new flood maps until the end of next year. They’d already pushed back the rollout until January.

The federal government is considering whether to classify the region’s levees as incapable of handling a flood so big that it has only a 1 percent chance of happening any given year. That’s FEMA’s threshold for classifying an area a high-risk flood area.

Reclassifying the region could raise flood insurance rates for thousands of homes and businesses.

The delay could give the area’s levee overseers more time to make needed repairs to the levees and raise money for the work.