Map to end flood premiums for some

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

About 600 to 700 Trumbull County residential and business owners will no longer find themselves in a flood plain and will be able to stop paying for flood insurance, a county official says.

Trish Nuskievicz, assistant Trumbull County planning director and floodplain administrator, said a consultant for the Federal Emergency Management Agency recently completed a Flood Insurance Rate Map for Trumbull County that provides more specific information on what areas are in flood plains throughout the county.

That information, soon to be available on the Trumbull County auditor’s Web site, will enable residents and businesses near water sources such as the Mahoning River and Mosquito Creek to determine whether their home or business is actually in the flood plain.

Financial institutions usually require a property owner in a flood plain to pay $500 to $1,600 per year for flood insurance, Nuskievicz said.

Some of those property owners never were in a flood plain, but the previous mapping done in 1979 was not specific enough to exclude certain property owners, Nuskievicz said.

A process has been available in the past to allow a property owner to determine whether they are truly in the flood plain, but it involves having a survey done, and some property owners never took the steps to check it out, Nuskievicz noted.

Adrian Biviano, Trumbull County auditor, said his Web site, www.auditor.co.trumbull.oh.us, will have a new flood-plain option available in the coming weeks that will show what areas are in the flood plain.

Nuskievicz said the new map will go into effect June 18, assuming that the Trumbull County commissioners approve revisions of the county flood-plain regulations by then.

Areas most affected by the new flood-plain map are along the Mahoning River, which runs through Newton Falls, Warren and Niles; along Mosquito Creek from the Mosquito Lake dam at state Route 305 south through parts of Bazetta and Howland townships and the city of Niles; and along Eagle Creek in Braceville Township.