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Flood Defenders urges Escambia County to update stormwater standards after citing rising NFIP claims
Summary
A Flood Defenders representative cited historical NFIP data and urged the county to update rainfall design data and revisit a stalled stormwater ordinance to reduce flooding and repetitive-loss properties.
Chris Kerr of Flood Defenders told the Escambia County public forum that national and Florida National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims and costs have been rising and that the county needs a concrete plan and updated technical standards to reduce flood risk.
Kerr cited historical NFIP figures derived from floodsmart.gov and summarized trends in rising claims and costs, saying the county should "invest and maintain what you have" and asking why the county had not returned an ordinance on stormwater design to the board. He said engineers were reportedly still using rainfall data posted in 1979 and urged staff to update design standards to reflect current rainfall patterns.
Kerr gave numbers attributed to the NFIP website (as quoted): billions of dollars in cumulative national claims and state-level totals for recent years, and he said Escambia County has dozens of repetitive-loss properties and 49 buyouts in progress. "How many homes you got flooding in there now in Bristol Park?" he asked, citing local buyouts and urging action.
No ordinance vote occurred at the forum; the speaker asked the board to direct staff to bring the ordinance back for consideration and to adopt updated rainfall data for design work. The forum record does not show the board committing to a timeline for those steps.
