Flood control in place, but Petaluma residents must still pay for insurance

<p>Stout steel walls line the Petaluma River through the historically flood-prone Payran area, giving the best protection that a $43 million federal project can provide.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>The river, actually a tidal slough connected to San Pablo Bay, has not overflowed into the neighborhood since 2007 when an abandoned railroad trestle was removed from the river channel.</p><p>That step did not complete the project, but officials say it established full flood control capacity, following years of work to widen the channel, rebuild bridges and install the floodwalls.</p><p>The Payran area's last major flood was in 1998 before the walls were installed. Water reached four feet deep on Rocca Drive, which runs along the river.</p><p>But most of the Payran area's 600 homeowners are still required to pay up to $1,800 a year for flood insurance — and will be for at least another year and a half until the project is completed and the flood risk reassessed.</p><p>“It hurts,” said Richard Giddens, a Payran resident since 1992. “Figure it out.”</p><p>Giddens, a retired Marin County public works employee, pays about $900 a year for federally mandated flood insurance, more than twice his premium for homeowners insurance, which does not cover flood losses.</p><p>One of his neighbors on Rocca Drive, Ida Sartori, pays almost $600 a year for flood insurance.</p><p>“I'm on a fixed income,” she said. “Come December, that's hard to get together.”</p><p>They both live less than a block from the muddy river, which dealt the Payran area $29 million damage in two floods in the 1980s.</p><p>Those events triggered political momentum for the Army Corps of Engineers project, billed as a “flood fix,” which was initially expected to cost less than $20 million and was to be completed in 1998.</p><p>Instead, the project's last major phase — widening 3,000 feet of the channel through the Payran area — started in 1999. The geographically low-lying area of one-story homes and businesses lies on both sides of the river adjacent to downtown Petaluma.</p><p>The project's final $2 million phase, including completion of the steel floodwalls, could start this summer and be completed in a year, said Mike Ban, Petaluma's director of water resources and conservation. Final cost will be more than $46 million, an Army Corps official said.</p><p>Only then will the Payran area be eligible to shed the high-risk designation it carries under the Federal Emergency Management Agency's flood insurance program. Residents will no longer be required to buy insurance, and if they do it will cost about $350 a year for a “preferred risk” policy, a FEMA official said.</p><p>“I'd have no problem paying that,” Giddens said. “That'd be a lark.”</p><p>Petaluma Mayor Pamela Torliatt said she is sympathetic to the Payran residents' plight, which amounts to paying for a flood risk that no longer exists.</p><p>“We have been diligently pushing this project forward,” Torliatt said.</p><p>The latest hangup is a $900,000 dispute between the city and the Army Corps, which has asked Petaluma to pay that much more and “won't spend a dime” until it does, Ban said.</p><p>Petaluma contends it has fulfilled its commitment to pay 35 percent of the project costs and hopes to resolve the matter in the next three months, Ban said.</p><p>Another potential delay involves Army Corps studies on the existing floodwalls, which could add more work to the project, Rep. Lynn Woolsey's, D-Petaluma, office said.</p><p>FEMA won't consider rescinding the Payran area's high-risk flood insurance designation until the project is 100 percent complete.</p><p>Payran residents are feeling “a little bit of aggravation,” said Heidi Kibbe, a Petaluma insurance agent.</p><p>FEMA flood insurance is sold by private companies under terms and rates set by the government.</p><p>In a high-risk flood zone, the maximum coverage — $250,000 for a residential structure and $100,000 for contents — costs $1,500 to $1,800 annually. Every homeowner with a mortgage from a federally insured bank must buy insurance, but may elect lower coverage amounts, said Jana Critchfield, a FEMA insurance specialist.</p><p>In a low-risk zone, coverage is optional and the $250,000/$100,000 plan costs $348 a year, or $388 for homes with a basement, she said.</p><p>In 2008, the river flooded about a dozen homes and businesses along Petaluma Boulevard, north of the Payran area.</p><p>The project has done its job so far, but there is no guarantee floodwater will never again run through the Payran neighborhood. Two pumping stations were installed as part of the project to cope with such a scenario.</p><p>Completion of the project will leave the Payran area with a 1 percent annual chance of flooding, which translates into a 26 percent chance over the life of a 30-year mortgage, the Corps said.</p><p>Giddens said he would never drop flood insurance altogether. “You never know what Mother Nature's going to throw at you,” he said.</p>