THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY. MARCH 30, 2009
MONDAY, MARCH 30, 2009
NEWS
9A
WEATHER
Floods warn uninsured Minnesota homeowners
BY NATE JENKINS Associated Press
MOORHEAD, Minn. — As the Red River crept within view of their backyard this past week, Denette and Billy Narum had an extra incentive to pray their sandbags held. Like most people in the path of potential floods, they have no flood insurance.
Fewer than 800 homeowners in the North Dakota and Minnesota communities most threatened by the swollen river hold insurance policies covering flood damage despite a decade-long push by state and federal officials to get people signed up, according to federal records obtained by The Associated Press.
Like the Narums, who bought their home five years ago, many farms.
because they have never seen a historic flood. Others don't want to shell out up to $800 a year for coverage, instead gambling that city dikes will protect their homes.
That leaves residents exposed to
huge losses, and they can't count on a government bailout. People who don't have insurance can get limited federal help if their county is declared a federal disaster area, but it's usually in a loan that must be repaid.
hours before she and her husband evacuated Friday, giving up on their six pumps as water seeped under sandbags topping a permanent levee and water filled their basement.
"This was never supposed to happen here," Denette Narum said.
Thousands of volunteers reinforced miles and miles of dikes with sandbags as the river rose to record levels. Even though the National Weather Service said the river appeared to be receding, it was still more than 20 feet above flood stage Sunday and expected to remain that way for days, testing the integrity of dikes that have already suffered some breaches.
FederalEmergencyManagement Agency reports show that in the besieged city of Fargo, N.D., with a population of 92,000, only 586 homeowners have policies — including just 90 in the area of highest flood risk. In neighboring Moorhead, a city of 30,000, that number is a mere 145.
"People think manmade structures protect them from Mother Nature."
BUTCH KINERNEY National Flood Insurance Spokesman
In fact, only 4,558 homeowners in the entire state of North Dakota and fewer than 9,000 in Minnesota carried
FEMA and state officials tried to get the message out about flood insurance after the devastating 1997 Red River flood, which submerged Grand Forks, N.D., and caused an estimated $4.1 billion in damage.
flood insurance as of January, the most recent figures available.
Only 743 homeowners in Grand
Forks now carry flood insurance.
"Memories are short, and people don't remember the 1997 flood," said Butch Kinerney, spokesman for the National Flood Insurance Program, managed by FEMA. "You see it time and time again. People forget the past."
FEMA doesn't require people to buy flood insurance unless they're in a designated flood plain and have a federally backed mortgage.
Butch and Janet Johnson have lived in Fargo for 35 years, just half a block from the Red River, and don't know any neighbors who have flood insurance. They've received a few fliers in the mail but never considered getting a policy.
Flood waters of the Red River are seen in the backyard of Denette and Alden Narum's home despite the sandbags dike Sunday in Moohead, Minn. The Narum's had an extra incentive to pull their sandbags back. Like almost everyone in the flood zone, they have no flood insurance.
"Our house is 100 years old and if it's going to go, they can have it," Janet lohnson said.
The Narums' mortgage company didn't require the insurance, and the previous owner told them there was only an inch of water in the basement during the 1997 flood.
"And that was considered a 100- year flood," said Billy Narum, who built an earthen berm to protect his home, in 2006 after he had to sandbag during late spring floods.
Kathy Beckius' duplex about a block from the Red River in Moorhead also was untouched by water during the 1997 flooding, so she and her husband decided against flood insurance. On Saturday, Beckius watched river water backing up in nearby storm drains, flooding streets in the area up to 2 feet deep in spots.
"It's your choice whether you get it or not where we live, and we just
ASSOCIATED PRESS
chose not to." she said.
After flooding in Minnesota in 2007, Gov. Tim Pawlenty advocated for a law requiring insurance companies to notify homeowners annually about flood insurance. However, there has been little change in the number of policies in Minnesota since Pawlenty signed the law last May, sad Ceil Strauss, who coordinates the flood insurance program for the state.
"For the most part, people just don't want to spend the money," Strauss said. "They think they're safe and don't believe they're in a flood plain most of time, even if they are."
Jeff Klein, North Dakota's flood insurance coordinator, said some people buy coverage only in years when the risk is high — usually when there's been a lot of snow — then drop it.
In 1997, more than 12,000 homeowners had flood insurance, Klein said, and he suspects the number of current policies is higher than shown by FEMA data, updated through January. This February, FEMA urged homeowners to buy insurance because of a record snow pack and the 30-day waiting period for a policy to take effect.
Anyone can buy the federal insurance from most private insurance agents, as long as their community participates in the National Flood Insurance Program.
Policies start at under $100 a year, and homeowners can insure the structure, contents or both. The average policy for people in a high-risk flood plain is about $600 to $800 a year.
FEMA officials say they encourage everyone to buy flood insurance, even though people behind
levees or dams certified to withstand a 100-year flood — one so big that it has only a 1 percent chance of happening in any given year — aren't required to.
"People think man-made structures protect them from Mother Nature, but Mother Nature does not pay attention to lines on a map or man-made levees," Kinneyey said. "Insurance is not cheap, but it's more expensive if you suffer a disaster."
Tell that to Billy Narum, who has no intention of buying flood insurance after the current flood threat is over. Instead, he said he'll build a higher berm and maybe get rid of the walk-out basement, assuming he can return home.
"Within three years of paying insurance premiums, I would be able to replace everything I lost anyway," he said.
Snowy solace
Vanessa Ediger, 11, loses her sled as she shes over a jump at the K-61 overpass on Avenue A on Saturday in Hutchinson. About 18 inches or snow fell in Huttinship from the two-day storm.
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POLITICS
BY JOHN HANNA Associated Press
Status of economy may lead to revisions of state budget
TOPEKA — A $13 billion-plus state budget is likely to win approval from legislators this week, but it's built on what seems a convenient fiction.
The apparent fiction is the notion that state revenues won't fall short of expectations again for the rest of the current fiscal year or the state's 2010 fiscal year, which begins July 1. Few, if any, legislators expect the state to have such good luck in the current economic climate.
If tax collections continue to fall as short of expectations as they did through February, the budget about to win approval fiscal 2010 won't balance, and legislators will be forced to revise it. If the state's finances get significantly worse, legislators might even have to revise the current budget, too.
The next forecast won't be issued until April 17, two weeks into legislators' annual spring break. Legislators are scheduled to reconvene April 29 to wrap up their business for the year, which is likely to include further budget revisions.
The suspect is described as a white man in his twenties or thirties, wearing a dark jacket, blue jeans and gloves. His vehicle is described as a light-colored sport utility vehicle with a Colorado tag.
CRIME Police search for suspect in local robbery, shooting
A few minutes later, authorities learned that someone had been shot. The victim was found two blocks north of the credit union, suffering from several gunshot wounds. He was rushed to a hospital.
The Lenexa Police Department said in a news release that the suspect entered the Credit Union of Johnson County on Saturday morning armed with a handgun and fled with an undetermined amount of money.
LENEXA — Authorities are searching for a man suspected of robbing a suburban Kansas City credit union and wounding a 71-year-old bystander.
Associated Press
The House and Senate expect to vote this week on a 2010 budget drafted by negotiators who reconciled dozens of differences between their chambers on spending issues. The product uses $585 million in federal stimulus funds to prop up the state's finances, as Gov. Kathleen Sebelius had proposed.
The problem will get worse if the officials and university economists who issue the state's financial forecast are persuaded by economic data that tax collections in fiscal 2010 will be lower than in fiscal 2009. Budget projections assume flat tax collections in fiscal 2010.
"I think it's anybody's guess at this stage of the game," said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat. "Everything is contingent on the revenue side."
The results are mixed,depending on the agency. Legislators are making significant cuts in public safety, agriculture and natural resources and general government agencies. Some social services are protected.
KU INDEPENDENT STUDY KU Courses Distance Learning
"I think there's a lot of unknowns out there," said Senate President Steve Morris, a Hugoton Republican. "We have to be flexible."
— except that the stimulus funds used to achieve the result come with strings that probably mean further belt-tightening for some programs.
Higher education comes out looking like the biggest winner. Having taken a round of cuts in the first budget, universities, community colleges and technical colleges don't appear to take another
NOW ACCEPTING BEAK-EM BUCKS!!!