Most homeowner insurance policies do not cover flood damage. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide flood insurance to property owners, renters and businesses. Flood insurance is only available to properties located within NFIP participating communities. NFIP participating communities are required to adopt and enforce floodplain management regulations that help mitigate the effects of flooding. The City of Riviera Beach participates in the NFIP and also participates in the NFIP’s Community Rating System (CRS).
The CRS program is a voluntary program that provides discounts on flood insurance rates to property owners based upon the community's CRS rating. CRS communities are rated from 1 to 10 based upon floodplain management activities in the community that exceed the NFIP minimums. A 5% discount is given for each point a community is rated below a 10. The City of Riviera Beach (“City”) has a current CRS rating of 9 which relates to a 5% discount for properties within the City. There are currently 5,038 flood insurance policies within the city with $1,547,766 in total annual premiums.
The NFIP has recently established new minimum requirements for communities to qualify for a CRS rating of 8 or better: a community’s floodplain management regulations must require that all manufactured homes installed or replaced in a special flood hazard area must be elevated so that the lowest floor is above the base flood elevation plus 1 foot.
The City of Riviera Beach is currently in the CRS recertification process through the Insurance Services Organization (ISO) and must revise our floodplain management regulations in order to improve our CRS rating which will provide greater discounts for property owners within the City. Each point improvement in the City’s CRS rating translates to approximately $66,000.00 in flood insurance premium savings for property owners in Riviera Beach.
Other minor amendments to the floodplain management regulations include amending some definitions and repealing Exhibit A. “Technical Amendments to the Florida Building Code”. The repeal of Exhibit A. is necessary because amendments within the exhibit have become redundant as they are now contained within the new edition of the Florida Building Code.