Members of the City of Brownwood, Brown County, and the Brown County Water Improvement District are holding a public meeting on Thursday, at 10am at Brownwood City Hall. This meeting is to have officials meet and discuss the current state of the local flood plain study.
A private engineering firm has been doing flood elevation studies of Lake Brownwood since late last year. According to Judge Ray West, at one point FEMA concurred that the flood of 2002 was a 100 year flood, but FEMA is not willing to rely upon the empirical data such as photos of high water marks and debris fields to make that determination.
According to West, FEMA has rejected many of the findings that their engineering firm has submitted saying that the flood should have gotten higher. FEMA is attempting to raise the flood plain elevation from the current level of 1435 feet above sea level. Raising this flood plain would effect new construction at the lake area & flood insurance premiums.
Judge West said, “This is just an opinion, but I really think that FEMA is simply trying to force flood insurance on people who will never use it.”
The Thursday morning meeting will be open to the public.
