2019 Mississippi River

[CajunVic]

Consider there is not ONE thing you contribute to this forum, I find that pretty funny. Keep the trolling up though. I guess that great job you got affords you the time to do it...

You go get them, flood contol specialist. Your posts are most entertaining. I guess next week you will specialize as a surgeon or maybe a rocket scientist.

[zephyr]

You go get them, flood contol specialist. Your posts are most entertaining. I guess next week you will specialize as a surgeon or maybe a rocket scientist.

I think the thing is you don't know how to judge if someone knows anything about something. You live in your own warped world of irrationalization and bad spelling. I mean, you're the baseball expert. The board has seen it and is truly amazed. Keep up the good fight Vickie.

[CajunVic]

I think the thing is you don't know how to judge if someone knows anything about something. You live in your own warped world of irrationalization and bad spelling. I mean, you're the baseball expert. The board has seen it and is truly amazed. Keep up the good fight Vickie.

💩💩💩

[HelmutVII]

I will certainly have to ask Helmut for that info on being 20-25 feet above BFE. Like he mentioned, BFE is identified in areas of higher risk such as Flood Zone A & AE. BFE's change throughout the floodplain. It just seems odd to be in a flood plain to all of a sudden 25 feet above it. If you go to the LSUagcenter website and look at the floodplain, there are different BFE's throughout depending on the topography.

Also, in times of flooding I've seen properties identified as being in Flood Zone X to have flooded and properties in Flood Zone A not getting anything. I agree with you that flood insurance coverage should not be determined by a line on a map as I think you are suggesting because of these differences and the maps were never perfect to say the least.

I think you are confusing 20 to 25 feet ground elevation with base flood elevation. Ground elevation is based on NAVD88 North American Vertical Datum with 0.0 being mean sea level. MSL. MSL is the average of high and low tide over a specified period of time. 20.0 ground elevation means you are 20.0 above MSL.

Base Flood Elevation BFE is the modeled 100 year water surface elevation based on NAVD88. A 22.0 foot BFE is 22.0 feet above MSL.

If your ground surface elevation is 20.0 and the BFE is 22.0 then your ground is 2 feet below the BFE. If your lowest finished floor of a structure enclosed on three sides is 22.5 then your finished floor is 0.5 feet above the BFE. YOUR FLOOD INSURANCE IS RATED BASED ON IF YOUR FINISHED FLOOR IS ABOVE OR BELOW THE BFE. The flood maps are called FIRM maps. Flood Insurance Rate maps. They are actuarial devises used to establish flood insurance rates for your location. It is used to assess risk. IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU WILL OR WILL NOT FLOOD. There could be a culvert plugged or a bridge obstructed that could cause you to flood in a five year event and every body else downstream of that would be fine.

[HelmutVII]

A bit of further clarification. The FIRM maps are what FEMA uses to establish rates so that they can generate premiums to cover future claims. They really really really want you to purchase flood insurance so they can generate premiums to add to their reserves. In their eyes, if you want to play you got to pay..

[zephyr]

I think you are confusing 20 to 25 feet ground elevation with base flood elevation. Ground elevation is based on NAVD88 North American Vertical Datum with 0.0 being mean sea level. MSL. MSL is the average of high and low tide over a specified period of time.

Base Flood Elevation BFE is the modeled 100 year water surface elevation based on NAVD88.

If your ground surface elevation is 20.0 and the BFE is 22.0 then your ground is 2 feet below the BFE. If your lowest finished floor of a structure enclosed on three sides is 22.5 then you are 0.5 feet above the BFE. YOUR FLOOD INSURANCE IS RATED BASED ON IF YOUR FINISHED FLOOR IS ABOVE OR BELOW THE BFE. The flood maps are called FIRM maps. Flood Insurance Rate maps. They are actuarial devises used to establish flood insurance rates for your location. It is used to assess risk. IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU WILL OR WILL NOT FLOOD. There could be a culvert plugged or a bridge obstructed that could cause you to flood in a five year event and every body else downstream of that would be fine.

I was referring to post 209 where he was using 20-25 feet above BFE. I understand the FIRM maps. We use them daily in our industry although I'm not an expert in their calculations such as you as I assume you are an engineer or surveyor or both. The point I was trying to make was that being 25 feet above the BFE here is highly unlikely or at least I haven't seen this since our topography doesn't change so drastically. When Amos referred to being 20-25 feet I suspected that was his ground elevation, not the distance from BFE.

[HelmutVII]

I was referring to post 209 where he was using 20-25 feet above BFE. I understand the FIRM maps. We use them daily in our industry although I'm not an expert in their calculations such as you as I assume you are an engineer or surveyor or both. The point I was trying to make was that being 25 feet above the BFE here is highly unlikely or at least I haven't seen this since our topography doesn't change so drastically. When Amos referred to being 20-25 feet I suspected that was his ground elevation, not the distance from BFE.

Oh I missed that. Your assumptions are correct.with respect to being an engineer. I do own an engineering and surveying company. Doing three flood certs tomorrow.

[CajunVic]

[QUOTE=HelmutVII;1145923. . . They are actuarial devises used to establish flood insurance rates for your location. It is used to assess risk. IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU WILL OR WILL NOT FLOOD. There could be a culvert plugged or a bridge obstructed that could cause you to flood in a five year event and every body else downstream of that would be fine.[/QUOTE]

That last sentence is probably as important as any other factor in making an evaluation and decision as to whether or not to carry flood insurance. If your property is generally at a low risk to flood, the insurance premiums will be cheap and you will have coverage if something like that happens.

Where I live it is high and there is a real remote chance of flooding. I have always carried flood insurance. However, about 20 years ago when we had open ditch drainage, there was a very heavy rain in a short period of time and We almost flooded. As the water began to rise, I rode downstream from where my lot drained and found a garbage can top stopping one of the driveway culverts. That little obstruction with unusually heavy rain in a short time period almost did us in.

Get your flood insurance.

[ZoomZoom]

If you live in Lafayette, look the the ditch next to Prarie Elementary. Nice big concrete structure, full of debris and silt. If your old enough, you will remember the coulee runs under Albertsons and St. Edmond's to drain Orgeron Heights. How much sediment is stuck up under there? That all drains to the river near Dien's Salvage yard (old Lipstick's Club).

The reason I got from LCG for lack of maintenance was the concrete sections in the city are over a foot lower than some of the non concrete parts of network west.

on the flip side, actually a good fishing hole. I've seen guys pull bass and catfish out along there.

[Boomer]

I don’t think I mentioned this but have to credit my wife for her efforts in the last Abbeville flood——went about half a mile in a pirogue to get to the highway for a ride to the office.....and like a Good Neighbor..........!

[Turbine]

I don’t think I mentioned this but have to credit my wife for her efforts in the last Abbeville flood——went about half a mile in a pirogue to get to the highway for a ride to the office.....and like a Good Neighbor..........!

You never mentioned the pirogue Boomer.

[Cajun90]

I will certainly have to ask Helmut for that info on being 20-25 feet above BFE. Like he mentioned, BFE is identified in areas of higher risk such as Flood Zone A & AE. BFE's change throughout the floodplain. It just seems odd to be in a flood plain to all of a sudden 25 feet above it. If you go to the LSUagcenter website and look at the floodplain, there are different BFE's throughout depending on the topography.

Also, in times of flooding I've seen properties identified as being in Flood Zone X to have flooded and properties in Flood Zone A not getting anything. I agree with you that flood insurance coverage should not be determined by a line on a map as I think you are suggesting because of these differences and the maps were never perfect to say the least.

I might have overstated the 20-25 foot. I was thinking about some parts of North Lafayette. I did a real quick look at the maps around suspect areas and the best I could find was around 15-16 above BFE.

Main point though is that we do a very poor job of communicating flood risk to the population in general. There is no excuse for that given the technological resources at our disposal today.