Rally to Raise Flood Insurance Awareness
Saturday, September 28th
12:00 Noon
State House Front Lawn, Montpelier

If you live in a floodway and currently have flood insurance, huge premium increases may be coming your way. Implementation of new flood maps combined with higher flood insurance rates starting October 1 will have an effect on your property values and have the potential to create mortgage defaults and financial hardship for anyone who currently carries flood insurance or who was drawn into the flood zones in FEMA’s new maps.

Please join us on Saturday to learn how this might affect you and how you can help make a difference. This rally is one of many nationwide gatherings in at least nine other states to oppose a well-intentioned but poorly implemented law called the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012.

Congress authorized FEMA to balance its budget by charging the “actual risk” of properties in the high risk flood zones as determined by FEMA. The aim was to make the program self-sustaining by raising insurance premiums over time.

The new rates are shocking. Homeowners in other states, and now in Vermont, are seeing rates of several thousand dollars per year. New rates begin October 1 for some properties. For others, policy increases are phased in over time at 25% per year until they reach “actual risk” rates. The new high rates are also triggered upon sale of a home, a lapse in a policy, new construction, or a new flood map.

This will have a tremendous impact on property values and local economies by impeding property transfers and introducing uncertainty into the market. If the increases are allowed to stand, they may lead to mortgage defaults and financial hardship for hundreds of families in central Vermont alone.

Because of the phasing in of grandfathered properties and policies, the full effects of Biggert-Waters are not known and many Vermonters are not even aware this is looming on the horizon.

Please attend our rally on September 28th at noon to gather information for yourself and to help your fellow Vermonters delay implementation of Biggert-Waters until the economic impact can be studied and fully understood.

Please feel free to contact me for more information or visit the Facebook page “Vermont Flood Insurance Forum”

"River" Nature Documentary Screening

Jan 30, 2025, 6 to 7:45 PM

Emergency Preparedness Kit Workshop at MSAC

Jan 31, 2025, 1 to 2 PM

Bone Builders Class

Feb 3, 2025, 9 to 10 AM