City of Austin responds to council resolution on flood insurance, education

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- After Austin City Council passed a resolution in May directing the city manager to make it easier for Austin residents to get flood insurance and better educate the public about flood risk, the city released it's response to that resolution Wednesday.

In a memo, the Watershed Protection Department said it has been "actively engaging with the community for the past two and a half years through the ongoing initiative to update the department’s Strategic Plan, Rain to River." You can also find information on how to prepare for floods from the Watershed Protection District here.

The memo also walked through each of the items listed in the resolution brought forward by Austin City Council Member Vanessa Fuentes. Here's some of what was in their response.

Insurance affordability

Austin City Council allocated $100,000 from the general fund to start a pilot program that could provide financial assistance to lower-income homeowners, "to assist them in purchasing federal flood insurance, and start a deductible sharing program, local flood insurance voucher, or subsidy program to supplement flood insurance premiums."

The Austin Watershed Department has started working with the Housing Department to make that pilot a reality, according to the memo, but also noted challenges.

"A core challenge is that strategies that only address up-front insurance costs do not directly reduce flood risk and could encourage people to remain in flood-prone areas even when that is not recommended," the memo said. It also noted that "drainage charge revenue is statutorily prohibited from being used to subsidize premiums or deductibles."

Still, the Watershed Protection District said it was working with the Housing Department to get the pilot off the ground.

"We do want to assist them in some way in the short-term, so we are not necessarily opposed to offering assistance, but it also has an unintended consequence of encouraging people to stay in a place where there could be flooding," said Ramesh Swaminathan, assistant director of Austin's Watershed Protection Department.

The city of Austin also supported the idea of bringing on a new full-time employee to help with its Community Rating System (CRS) rating, which can earn you discounts on your flood insurance policy.

Watershed Protection District staff noted that while they welcomed the help of additional staff, more is needed to get further reductions in CRS rating.

"Austin recently secured a class 5 CRS rating, resulting in premium discounts of up to 25% for many flood insurance policyholders," the memo said. "The top rating is 1. Of the 73 cities in Texas participating in the CRS program, only two cities have a rating better than 5, and only ten have a rating of 5, including Austin. Nationwide, less than 2% of participating cities have a rating better than 5."

Flood Early Warning Systems (FEWS)

While the proposal from city council recommended developing early warning systems and signage or signals at flood-prone areas, the city noted that it already has a program in place for that called FEWS.

FEWS includes 16 flashing beacons at low-water crossings across Austin and has "an extensive network of rain and stream gages, cameras, automatic traffic gates, flashing beacons, and publicly accessible website information to continuously monitor and communicate to the public about the threat of severe rainfall events in Austin. It also participates in public pop-up events and conducts interagency tabletop exercises to improve flood response."

The city did say static signage was being inventoried.

Educating the public

While the resolution asked the Watershed Protection District to "conduct ongoing public education" surrounding flooding and flood insurance, WPD says it already does that too.

"WPD hosts a variety of year-round Flood Safety Awareness and Preparedness activities to educate and engage Austinites about the dangers of flooding and how to stay safe and be prepared before, during, and after a flood occurs," the memo says. "WPD staff also informs the public about flood insurance and floodplain boundary changes and works to enhance engagement with previously under-engaged communities."

That campaign includes paid advertisements in English and Spanish, emergency alerts during heavy rainfall, an annual flood safety video contest, promotion of Austin's flood safety awareness week and other events, the memo said.

The department also has a flood safety awareness week which will happen in April, the memo said.

"I think the ask is to essentially to see if they can do anything more for certain populations, certain people who are more impacted. And understandably, we've had some really interesting climate events that have happened the last few years," said Swaminathan.