Aug. 23 — Puyallup must meet flood insurance deadline

Puyallup residents could lose their right to purchase flood insurance if the city continues to drag its heels on meeting a two-year-old deadline to comply with basic federal flood plain regulations by mid-October.

The city has had two years to get itself into compliance, but has so far failed to act. If the city doesn’t meet the deadline, the matter will be handed over to the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), which will determine what to do next. A distinct possibility is that residents who don’t already have flood insurance won’t be allowed to purchase it and those who do have it wouldn’t be allowed to renew it. This would leave city residents unprotected when the rain starts pouring down again this fall.

Federally managed flood insurance is considered a gift from the nation to residents of cities that comply with flood regulations. While residents have to pay for the insurance, the federal government only allows its availability in cities that comply with guidelines. Because residents can’t get the insurance any other way, it forces cities to plan ahead for wet weather and to follow a national standard.

The city has had two years to comply with the basic federal regulations, but has gotten stuck trying to make Puyallup’s own codes even stricter than the national minimum. While the Washington State Department of Ecology agrees stricter is always better, at the moment it would simply settle for Puyallup to meet the basic requirements.

Right now, Puyallup doesn’t, and that’s a concern for the department and should be a concern to all city residents.

It’s a wonderful and noble pursuit that city officials want to improve Puyallup beyond what the federal government requires, but in the process have dragged their heels and put residents in jeopardy. The city should have met the basic standards before beginning to branch out.

The bare minimum isn’t always the best for Washington and ultimately, it may not be for Puyallup either. It would be useless, though, if while trying to adopt stricter regulations, they didn’t do anything at all.

FEMA doesn’t think meeting the deadline should be a problem and we doubt the city will miss the deadline. That would require utter incompetence. But there’s no good reason to have let it drag on so long and pull it together at the last minute.