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FEMA offers revised flood map in Fillmore
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More from County NewsA conversation between local agencies and the Federal Emergency Management Agency has given Fillmore city officials hope that a large swath of the city might not be classified as a flood zone.
"FEMA offered a revised process," said Bert Rapp, Fillmore's public works director. "They didn't guarantee revised results, but we're comfortable that with the revised process there'll be a significant reduction in the flood zone."
According to the preliminary flood insurance rate map released in May, about 3,000 homes in Fillmore are in the flood plain.
If the map is published, homeowners will be required to purchase flood insurance to have a federally backed home loan. The city will also be restricted in the building permits it could issue in the affected area, meaning property owners may not be allowed to build additions to existing homes or build on empty lots.
Local officials, who have been in discussions with FEMA since the map was released, say it does not use the best available information. Rapp said the number of homes in Fillmore that might be at risk during a major flood is 600, not 3,000.
Fillmore and other cities affected by FEMA's findings related to the Santa Clara River have hired a consultant through the Ventura County Watershed Protection District to review the information.
"We definitely want to make sure that no property could be put in the flood plain and be subject to a flood insurance rate if they don't have to," said Sergio Vargas, deputy director of the district.
According to local officials, FEMA made some concessions during a conference call Thursday with representatives from the district, Ventura County and the cities of Fillmore and Oxnard.
In one concession, Kathleen Schaefer, the FEMA engineer who was placed in charge of the Santa Clara River flood insurance maps project two weeks ago, agreed to permit the continued use of aluminum beams to plug an opening in the Sespe Creek levee where railroad tracks pass through.
Local officials must provide documentation to indicate that they can open and close the beams in a timely manner. Initially, FEMA officials had wanted the manual beam system to be replaced with an automatic gate; otherwise, the larger flood plain would remain on the map.
Schaefer said Monday that she was looking into whether provisional accreditation could be granted for another section of the Sespe Creek levee that was identified as problematic by FEMA: the site of the Highway 126 bridge. If the provisional accreditation is granted, it would allow more time for a technical review of the levee.
Because of concerns at those points on the levee, Rapp said, FEMA had made the flood insurance map as if segments of the levee did not exist.
Schaefer said she is familiarizing herself with the concerns with the flood insurance maps and intends to meet with local officials in the coming weeks.
"I may have some flexibility my predecessor didn't think we had," she said. "I don't know if that's going to result in a change."
Posted by chair on September 23, 2008 at 4:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is all very bureaucratically and politically nice. What happens with those 2,400 homes when they actually get flooded and their owners don't have flood insurance? It's a darn shame, I know, that Mother Nature doesn't read newspapers nor does She fret about legalistic findings.
Posted by handyhood on September 23, 2008 at 7 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I've seen Fillmore flood out two times and now they have built homes on the Santa Clara river bank. They built a levee, but when that river gets moving it eats levee's for breakfast. A lot of people who have never seen the Santa Clara or the Sespe flood have bought home in Fillmore and my advice to them is to get flood insurance regardless of where in Fillmore they live!
Posted by del on September 23, 2008 at 12:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
One could easily speculate that the feds caved in to the pressure from the greed merchants.
Remember, ol' Ma Nature always bats last.
Posted by del on September 23, 2008 at 12:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I can just imagine the limerick ol' Clarence Freeman would write about this.
Posted by Franko on September 23, 2008 at 2:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
GramMars-You bring up a good point. Anyone notice the amount of material being removed downstream of Pole Creek? There is a huge hole and it also appears that a lot of the new homes being built at this location are also below river level.
For the developer to bring in new material and re-compact the whole area, there is going to be tons and tons of trucks needed to accomplish this task, if it get done at all.
I certainly would not purchase a home in this location, no matter how attractive the entrance looks....Pole Creek to the north and the Santa Clara River practically at your doorstep, no thanks!
Posted by whatsup805 on September 23, 2008 at 3:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)
When it floods i'm sure they will sue Fillmore for letting them to build there. Just look at La Cochita...they sued the rancher and it WAS Mother Nature.
Posted by Brownpride on September 23, 2008 at 3:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Those houses are ugly small and in the river bed! The entrance is nice but what about when you try to exit? You have to cross a damn highway to get out! WTF?
Posted by stopit on September 23, 2008 at 4:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I think the developers installed HUGE FOUNTAINS at the entrance to get the residents accustomed to the sound of rushing water.
Posted by Brownpride on September 23, 2008 at 4:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yea what the hell is that?? I thought new home builders were suppost to be going green? That is wasting water and running up a bill to run those pumps.
Posted by Brownpride on September 23, 2008 at 8:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yea but water shooting 80 feet in the air seems to evaporate a lot faster.... So they probably have to fill it more often. Oh well I am not a hippie.
Posted by surferdude on September 24, 2008 at 5:26 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Don't be fooled, this isn't about the flood insurance. Fillmore officials are only interested in being able to develop more property in flood areas. That's the whole point of this exercise.
Posted by vcsexplorer11 on September 27, 2008 at 8:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree with the city and the commenters. The areas by the the santa clara river are dangerous flood areas. The FEMA maps showed areas in North Fillmore that will never get flooded and areas that, even in a 500 year flood, will see streets flooded but not houses because this side of the sespe levee is higher then the unprotected side. It believe to take several days of constant erosion at the levee base to take it down, not one flash flood. As far as the SC river houses, good luck.
Posted by AnnaWhaat on September 29, 2008 at 8:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
GramMars ,Exactly! I thought the City lost thier minds when they built those homes in the darn River bed !!!!!!!
I even wonder about those who bought there. You can clearly see the houses are in the Riverbottom!
Posted by TownDrunk on September 29, 2008 at 2:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
What most fail to realize is the Santa Clara River canal has filled dangerously with sediment over 40 ft in the last 50 years due to erosion and expansion of hillside groves and row crops. The river bottom is actually higher in many places between Piru and Fillmore and every year will cause problems with flooding. Conservationists and Government Agencies fail to see that the river is mired down with sediment, and DEVOID of life due to the unnatural filling in.......There is no Santa Clara river.......its been replaced with a silt road lacking any catchment of water, wildlife or usefulness. The town of Fillmore will continue to be flooded out with the new Bridges tract homes built by Griffin Homes in the riverbottom and artificially shored up without consideration of the threat of floods. One good year of rain and its all downriver.......you may as well give those homes a Santa Paula zip code. When will the idiots open their eyes?
Posted by Brownpride on September 30, 2008 at 10:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Hopefully people do their homework before they buy in the riverbed. Rule number one is never listen to a sales person...
Posted by stopit on September 30, 2008 at 3:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The other Development downstream of The Bridges is ironically named "River Walk",it's fitting because when the floods come,they will all be walking in the River looking for their stuff!
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