It’s not often the federal government owns up to a mistake.
But the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has admitted that its flood plain maps along a two-mile stretch of Bull Creek in Beach Park are wrong by 4.8 feet in elevation–placing about 30 homes in a flood hazard zone.
A resident of one of those northeast Lake County homes, Ken Serzynski, is irked, because that mistake forces him to buy flood insurance for $228 a year.
“We’re in a flood plain by error, but it has never been corrected,” Serzynski said.
Although FEMA has known of the error since about 1991, some residents didn’t discover the mistake until they refinanced their mortgages in recent years. The Village Board has been seeking a correction from the federal agency for years.
“An error like this can be made very quickly, a matter of a drawing or a reading,” said Beach Park President Milton Jensen. “It seems to take forever to get it undone.”
To help speed up the process of correcting the error, Jensen told residents attending a recent Village Board meeting “once all the necessary information is gathered, I will ask the board (to pay for) funding for a new survey.”
“We may have to pay for some engineering to help straighten this out,” Jensen said. “But in my opinion, it’s terrible that we have to pay.
“We didn’t do anything wrong. But we will pay to expedite this so citizens of the village are not harassed and made to pay.”
Such a survey, Jensen added, might cost $15,000 to $20,000. He’ll fight with the federal government for reimbursement later, if necessary, he said.
FEMA issued new flood plain maps for Cook and Lake Counties in 1997, updating maps dating to the early- to mid-1980s. Heavy construction in the region, as well as the floods of 1986 and 1987, prompted the updates.
Data in earlier maps that had been in error were carried over into the Beach Park maps in 1997, said Ken Hinterlong, a FEMA civil engineer. The maps show where flooding is likely to occur.
But for the two-mile length of Bull Creek in Beach Park, it’s “a 4.8 foot survey `bust,’ ” he said, using a surveying term for a mistake. “All the engineering was based on a benchmark in error by 4.8 feet.”
Such a surveying error, said Hinterlong, “is very unusual.” FEMA discovered the error in 1991 after residents complained, and found that Beach Park flood plain maps have included the survey error since the 1980s.
Hinterlong said the error places about 30 homes in the bogus flood zone.
FEMA and Beach Park village officials agree a new survey is needed. The question is, who will pay for it?
“We have been hoping for years that Lake County and the village would help us out,” Hinterlong said, “and we hope that will happen. We are a minimally funded agency.”
The Lake County Stormwater Management Commission notified FEMA on Aug. 7, 1998, that it was up to FEMA to resolve the issue. But the error remains unresolved, and Village President Jensen said he would be meeting with FEMA on the matter in a week or two.
Under the Flood Disaster Act of 1973, flood insurance coverage is mandatory if a home is in a flood-risk area designated by FEMA.
It would be foolish to build a home in a flood hazard area, reasoned Serzynski.
So after repeated assurances from developers and mortgage companies that his lot was flood-free, Serzynski built a home near Bull Creek in Beach Park in 1993.
Then last spring, “I got something from my mortgage company, saying I’m in a flood plain and they’re taking $1,000 out of my escrow account for flood insurance,” he said.
Serzynski complained to Beach Park officials, after talking to neighbors. He discovered that one neighbor planned to retire and move to Wisconsin, but is hesitant to make the move until the flood zone designation is lifted.
Another neighbor, Jerry Powles Jr., said that prices for homes sold in the area have dropped recently by as much as $20,000 because of the uncertainty. Houses in the area generally sell for about $125,000 to $130,000, he said.
“We’re stuck,” said Powles. “It’s hard to get a survey company to come in because they don’t have (valid) benchmarks to go by. Survey companies don’t want to touch it. It’s really a mess.”
A Beach Park resident since 1994, Powles said he also was notified by his mortgage company that he needed flood insurance, and paid $1,000 for it.
“Whenever I call and ask them about letters we got at the (house purchase) closing saying we were not in a flood zone and no flood insurance was required, all they do is transfer me around,” Powles said.
Jensen said the unwelcome news about flood insurance often comes when residents are refinancing their mortgages.
