[StBernard] Insurance not required, FEMA told flooded town

[Westley Annis]

Insurance not required, FEMA told flooded town
Story Highlights
Nearly all homes, businesses in Gulfport, Illinois, were destroyed by
floodwaters

FEMA didn't require flood insurance since levee rated to withstand a
100-year flood

Only 28 of the town's 200 residents have flood insurance; many can't afford
to rebuild

Risk assessment was accurate and flood dangers being re-evaluated, FEMA says

By David Mattingly
AC360° Correspondent
GULFPORT, Illinois (CNN) -- All roads in the town of Gulfport, Illinois,
lead to nowhere. They all hit a dead end into Mississippi River floodwaters.

The small town in western Illinois was devastated Wednesday when two levees
failed about 45 miles south. Tuesday, all that was visible were a few signs
and rooftops.

"It almost looked like a tidal wave coming across the land," recalls Rick
Gerstel, a resident of Gulfport. "Almost like the end of the world is what
it looks like."

The water barreled through with such force, it knocked Gulfport's town hall
off of its foundation, and the walls of some brick and mortar buildings
collapsed. Most businesses and homes are underwater.

But none of this was supposed to happen -- at least that is what residents
believed.

Gulfport was protected by a levee rated to withstand a 100-year flood.
Although it wasn't designed to protect the town from a flood on the scale of
last week's, it was enough protection that the Federal Emergency Management
Agency did not require business or homeowners to purchase flood insurance.

Only 28 of the town's 200 residents had federal flood insurance. The rest
trusted that the levees would hold. Residents Rick and Gina Gerstel, who
lost everything, say no one from their bank to the municipal or federal
governments ever told them they were at risk and ought to buy flood
insurance.

Some residents said they felt misled about the risks of not having flood
insurance. They said they thought the chances of a catastrophic flood were
miscalculated. Watch: Flooded residents gambled and lost »

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut, agrees. He supports legislation that would
require anyone living in an area protected by a levee to have flood
insurance.

"I don't know how you define 'protected' or call that protected when you're
telling people 'you don't have to have this; you don't need it' ... and
you're watching families being devastated," Dodd said. "But the opportunity
to get on their feet again is going to be very difficult for many families.
And that's one of the major shortcomings in the flood insurance program."

FEMA says its risk assessment of Gulfport was accurate, and the agency is
spending $1 billion to upgrade outdated maps and re-evaluate flood dangers.

"We do our best to advertise the availability of flood insurance and
encourage people to purchase it," said Terry Reuss Fell, regional chief of
FEMA's floodplain management. "We implement the laws that are given to us
and the laws right now deal with the floodplains management within that
100-year floodplain and the insurance purchase requirements in that area
also."

The flooding could have been worse, according to officials, if the federal
government had not purchased low-lying land after the historic floods in
1993, which caused $12 billion in damage.

Since then, the government bought out more than 9,000 homeowners, turning
much of the land into parks and undeveloped areas that can be allowed to
flood with less risk. FEMA has moved or flood-proofed about 30,000
properties.

But those changes are little consolation for the Gerstels and other
uninsured residents who have lost everything and can't afford to rebuild.

"Will you ever go back to that house?" CNN asked the Gerstels.

"No, sir. I would not go back to the town," Rick Gerstel said. "I would
never live there again."

All AboutNational Flood Insurance • Natural Disasters • Mississippi River
 

  
 
  
 

  
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