It's likely some homes didn't follow flood regulations, official says

By The Associated Press

JACKSONVILLE — Some homes in Arkansas communities with tough floodplain rules still ended up filled with water, an indication that city and county officials may not have fully enforced the regulations, a state official said Thursday.

Michael Borengasser, a flood expert with the Arkansas Natural Resource Commission, said some homes that should have been protected now have river silt covering kitchen counters and mud in bedrooms. While older homes may have been exempt from rules, others sat in danger as heavy rains and floods swept through the state in March and April.

"If you go to some communities and see houses that were built in the last 15 years that flooded, they shouldn't have flooded," Borengasser said.

Borengasser said the problem only affected some communities taking part in the National Flood Insurance Program, which requires stronger local laws regarding building around flood-prone areas in exchange for federal insurance policies. However, he refused to name the communities Thursday after a speech before the Arkansas Floodplain Management Association.

"I don't want to knock that community until I have all the facts in. It could be some things were done accidentally, some things were done through negligence," Borengasser told The Associated Press. "It may just be an accident, but it will be addressed."

The flood insurance program, which takes in $2.7 billion in premiums annually, provides affordable insurance not always available on the private market. In Arkansas, 62 counties and 320 cities have joined the program since its creation in 1968. The Federal Emergency Management Agency regulates areas up to those affected by a 100-year flood - meaning regions that have a 1-in-100 chance of being flooded in any given year.

Model ordinances offered to communities in the flood insurance program set out the perils of not following the tougher rules - including homeowners and businesses losing their policies. Borengasser said Thursday it would be too soon to say what would be possible consequences for counties and cities not enforcing the rules.

Since March, torrents of rain flooded out the White River basin and caused a surge in the Arkansas River. Gov. Mike Beebe has declared more than three-fourths of the state's counties disaster areas from tornadoes and the flooding.

Many areas remain flooded, complicating efforts to assess damage, Borengasser said. Roy McClure, a FEMA employee, said his agency also would look previous at flood-control projects to see how they fared.

"Did they protect the residents like they were supposed to?" McClure asked during a speech. "We're going to do a review these past projects to see if they have been cost effective."

By Sunday, National Weather Service forecasts predict floodwaters from the White River at Clarendon will crest at 34 feet. Projections have the river slowly subsiding out of cotton and wheat fields in east Arkansas after that.

However, reservoir lakes in the basin remain near capacity, meaning the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could be forced to release even more water if hard rains again fall in the state.

"Shoot, it's quite possible we're not done yet," said Steve Bays, a weather service hydrologist.