New Chattanooga Flood Plain Maps...Some Residents Are Shocked

Every few years, the Federal Emergency Management Agency updates its Flood Insurance maps, and this year, one Chattanooga neighborhood has been added to the 100-year flood plain..

We did some digging, and found out that not everybody in that neighborhood knows, that only flood insurance, will protect their home, if their neighborhood floods..

Highland Way.is a quiet little street in the Forest Plaza neighborhood in Chattanooga, between Ely and Brynwood Roads.. but Candy Payne says, it's nothing near "high land," IF it rains hard..

"All the way down to our ditch, it floods," she says, "water floods over our driveway.. it's just a lot of flooding."

She's talking about this ditch that runs near her house. The only time you see water flowing in it, is after a heavy rain..

Back in 96, when what meteorologists called a 100 year rain, flooded this area all the way over to Red Bank. The city measured six inches of rain, in about 45 minutes.

Mrs. Payne says three years ago, her family and other homeowners got letters from the city, indicating work crews would be making improvements to this ditch..  She says it never happened.

Now, the city may have changed its approach to that idea. The new flood plain maps from FEMA have come out, and everything north of the old ending boundary at Access Road, is now in the 100-year Flood Plain.

The new addition is the Forest Plaza neighborhood, which spells bad news for Mrs. Payne..  We showed her where her house is, and it's right in the middle of the new Flood Plain addition.  She was not aware of that.

"It's pretty upsetting," she told us.

That may soon be upsetting news to at least one other area in Chattanooga, whose flooding problem the city says, may eventually change the FEMA maps, too.  We dug deeper into the FEMA Flood Insurance maps, and found out the city has already gotten many flooding calls from homeowners in Belleau Woods off Morris Hill Road..

"That was sort of an unknown," says Mr. Payne.  "People really didn't realize the flooding potential was there until after somebody started to experience it, and then at that point, it was too late, the homes were already built."

As for Forest Plaza, property owners are coming to grips with the flood insurance, they may have to buy..  "I'll have to talk to my husband," Mrs. Payne says.  "We hadn't planned on moving any time soon."

If your property floods a lot, you can check your status by calling your city or county engineering department..