Costs Rising with Water

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Created on Wednesday, 11 March 2015 14:25

Written by Emma Kaplan

WHEELOCK- The town of Wheelock is having an ongoing discussion about flooding and the impact it could have if the town is not insured. Although the topic was not brought up at Wheelock's town meeting last Tuesday, it is now being discussed, because as of now, Wheelock is not insured for flooding.

"If there was a really big [flooding] disaster in this town, all of our taxes would go up drastically," said Roger DeKett, Chair of the Planning Commission for Wheelock, "of paying for damages in the event of a flood."

The most recent flood damage Wheelock faced was in 2011 during Hurricane Irene.  To avoid flood damage costs in the future, DeKett is working with the town to become a part of FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program and work with the Flood Hazard Regulations.  

According to DeKett, Wheelock has never been in the National Flood Insurance Program.

"We're trying to get the town registered [because] in events where we have a lot of damage, we can get extra funding because we're involved in the Flood Hazard Regulations and we also get funding through FEMA if we're in the National Flood Insurance Program," DeKett adds. 

Discussing becoming a part of the National Flood Insurance Program has been a learning process for the town. "We have learned that we're not in the program and probably should be and if we adopt the flood hazard regulations, we will receive state funding for any nationally declared disaster so that was motivation for jointing both programs,"  DeKett says.

There is no cost for the town to join either of the programs and the discussion will continue at the next selectboard meeting date, which has yet to be set.