SANDY SPRINGS, Ga.,None — Some metro Atlanta homeowners might soon have to purchase flood insurance even though they've never had to before.
Kevin Caiaccio's home sits beside a sleepy tributary of Nancy Creek in Sandy Springs. Even when the flood of 2009 struck Atlanta, he said, the water from the creek barely flooded his back yard.
"That was a pretty serious flood and it came really nowhere near the house," he told Channel 2's Mike Petchenik.
Caiaccio, and his neighbors along Windsor Parkway, have learned their homes will soon be added to the flood plain maps. That means he'll likely have to buy flood insurance, and he won't be able to expand the footprint of his home.
"It's a little frustrating because it seems arbitrary," said Caiaccio.
Sandy Springs Stormwater Services manager David Chastant told Petchenik that the state is requiring cities along the Chattahoochee River Basin to update their flood plain maps to more accurately reflect the risks. Chastant said the city has been working with FEMA to update its flood plain maps, re-evaluating about 60 miles of waterway in Sandy Springs alone. Other metro area counties are doing the same, he said.
"We're going further up the creeks, so we have increased the amount of flood plain that will be mapped," he said.
Chastant said that updates will mean some homes, like Caiaccio's, that weren't in the flood plain before will be added to it. He said it's a mixed blessing for those homeowners.
"The good news is they can now be aware that they are in the flood plain," he said. "That gives them the chance to do any flood plain mitigation that they want, to know and be aware they need to buy flood insurance and that kind of stuff."
Chastant said it's possible that once the maps are finalized, some homes could be removed from the flood plains.
"Just because you're in the floodplain doesn't mean you're going to be under 10 feet of water," he said. "Just because you have flood plain on your property doesn't mean you have to have flood insurance. The insurance is for your house," he said.
Chastant said the final flood plain revisions will be published in September. Homeowners will be able to appeal if they don't feel their home is truly on the flood plain, but he said they'll need proof in the form of an elevation study to be removed from it.
Caiaccio told Petchenik many of his neighbors plan to appeal, but he doesn't plan to do so.
"Based on the maps, it's clear we'd be in the new floodplain," he said.
WSBTV
