Senate Bill Could Force Property Owners to Again Buy Costly Flood Insurance

Long Beach City Council Member Gerrie Schipske Sunday night sent an e-alert link to an LBReport.com article with big news: a looming U.S. Senate bill would require tens of thousands of property owners to buy costly flood insurance in 'low-risk' areas of Southeast L.A. County.

In two editorials (one headlined "Asteroid Insurance") and a call-to-action, the news site writes:

"On Monday June 25, the U.S. Senate is poised to discuss a bill which includes verbiage -- removed from the House version that the City of Long Beach wants removed from the Senate version -- that would impose mandatory "flood insurance" on tens of thousands of homeowners and commercial property owners in much of LB and southeast L.A. County, claiming they are at "residual risk" of a "500 year" (0.002 annual chance) flood from federally certified levees to prevent a 100 year-flood. The real reason for this section of the bill is to bail out the Congressionally-created "National Flood Insurance Program" (administered by FEMA) which is financially unable to cover major flood claims."

Long Beach City Council Member Gerrie Schipske, in an e-mail Sunday night, urged residents to act swiftly.

"Thanks to the excellent reporting of Bill Pearl and his www.lbreport.com, the residents of Long Beach have received noticed that US Senate is poised to vote tomorrow to require that flood insurance be paid by a majority of homeowners in Long Beach -- even if there is a minimal chance that a flood would occur."

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