ATLANTA — Tales of 400 percent premium increases for flood insurance by Georgians in newly designated flood zones have prompted such outrage that legislators introduced a resolution Thursday seeking relief.
Resolutions in the House and Senate introduced by Sen. William Ligon and Rep. Alex Atwood, both Brunswick Republicans, urge Congress to repeal the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012. It is likely to be delayed eight months by a budget deal hatched by members of Congress earlier this week, but the Georgians wanted stopped altogether.
The law aims to raise revenues for the federal flood-insurance program to make up for losses incurred by a series of major storms that hit large population areas.
The law also calls for revisions in the definition of flood zones, effecting inland property owners near creeks, rivers and streams.
“This is going to impact more than just coastal Georgia. It’s going to impact Atlanta. It’s going to impact Columbus because these maps are changing,” Atwood said.
More than 400 people met at the College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswick recently to send the legislators off with instructions to do something. Many reported seeing premiums on a $250,000 home jumping tenfold to $25,000 yearly.
“This hit almost overnight for us,” Atwood said.
Atwood wants to dispel the notion that the insurance program only benefits the beachfront homes of people rich enough to cover their own luxuries. The jolt is brutal for retirees on a fixed income because they have little chance of selling their homes, he said. Sailors assigned to the nearby Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base and dockworkers at the Port of Brunswick are also going to have trouble affording homes near their jobs.
It will hamper a region still suffering from the last recession.
“We have not come out of that yet, and this is going to shove us right back into it,” he said.