NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in New Orleans is expected to hear testimony Thursday in a lawsuit that seeks to press pause on FEMA’s new system of calculating flood insurance premiums.
The suit, filed by a coalition of 10 states, 43 parishes, 12 levee boards, and 2 municipalities claims Risk Rating 2.0 is unlawful and should be scrapped.
It has sent insurance rates through the roof for many homeowners along the Gulf Coast.
The litigation argues Risk Rating 2.0 is shrouded in secrecy and unequitable for ratepayers, and it does not take into account the billions of dollars in flood mitigation measures taken by local governments and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“We’re seeing people go from $500 to $5,000 and $6,000 a year on the backs of already high homeowners’ costs, on the backs of high-interest rates, on the backs of high building costs," Lafourche Parish President Archie Chaisson told WWL-TV when the suit was announced in June.
Judge Darrel Papillon is expected to hear from five witnesses including Chaisson and St. Charles Parish President Matt Jewell.
“We’ve seen an impact of people who have not come back to St. Charles Parish after Hurricane Ida,” Jewell said. “They have been rebuilding and now deciding, I’ll just sell that home and move somewhere else.”
Chaisson said Risk Rating 2.0 is more than just a pocketbook issue, it’s an attack on a way of life in south Louisiana.
“Lafourche Parish is about 98,000 people, with the majority of which put on work boots or shrimp boots, and they provide, and we feed and fuel America through Lafourche Parish. If we don’t have people on the coast who can do that how are those jobs going to survive and how are we going to keep the culture there?”
Jewell said some people in his parish, like folks living in Bayou Gauche have seen their flood premiums go up by more than 750 percent.
“If we can win this lawsuit and we can see the data that FEMA used to create these full risk premiums, I think you’re going to see the data is wildly inaccurate.”
Attorney General Jeff Landry who is running for governor, and his Solicitor General Liz Murrill who is running for AG, are leading the charge in support of an injunction to stop Risk Rating 2.0 while the court considers the lawsuit.
“Government bureaucrats have disrupted our housing market and jeopardized our economy with their illegal decisions, and we are fighting back,” Landry said. “I look forward to Thursday’s hearing and exposing the federal government’s new plan for the unlawful mess that it is.”
The hearing is now scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday at the Federal Courthouse in New Orleans.
