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"A business group is raising new questions about increased flood insurance rates in the face of Federal Emergency Management Administration's $18 billion dollar deficit.Guilbeau's convenience store, along LA 23 in Port Sulphur, has been a quick stop for gas and a bite since 1947.\"We rebuilt after Katrina, and business has been great. We've been very fortunate, but now this flood insurance problem -- that's going to be a killer,\" said owner Jody Guilbeau.\"I know it will be pretty close to $100,000 a year,\" said Jeremy Guilbeau.Greater New Orleans Inc., a regional economic development alliance serving the 10-parish region, is fighting the National Flood Insurance Plan increases, some of which are set to take effect Oct. 1.\"The people who are actually paying and sustaining the losses will bear the brunt,\" said Dale Benoit, a member of the GNO Inc. board.The group has questioned FEMA about how the National Flood Insurance Plan is managed. FEMA's responses are detailed in a report released Wednesday by GNO Inc. FEMA said 30 percent of flood insurance premiums go to insurance agent commissions, company profits and the cost of servicing policies.Benoit said that needs to be changed.\"This is a program that is basically risk-free,\" he said. \"It's federally guaranteed. It's the cost of administering a program where the insurance companies stand to sustain no losses, but we're paying 30 percent of the premiums for the benefit of their work.\"Benoit is further outraged that 40 percent of those who are required by their mortgage to have flood insurance do not pay.\"They're leaving a lot of policy revenue on the table by this not being enforced,\" said Benoit.GNO Inc. said instead, citizens and businesses that followed the rules are being punished. For example, the Microtel Inn and Suites along Highway 23 in Belle Chase was built to FEMA guidelines and has never flooded. Even so, under the new rates, the insurance will go from $1,500 to $103,000 a year.\"It sure seems like the way to go would be to just self-insure and hope nothing bad happens for a while. That's quite a gamble. It could be a big one,\" said Jeremy Guilbeau.But it's a gamble most working-class folks just aren\u2019t willing to take.FEMA confirmed it supplied the statistics for GNO Inc.\u2019s report and said it's reviewing the report. FEMA said insurance rates are increasing this year for older properties that are subsidized. Those properties make up 20 percent of the NFIP. These changes affect second homes, businesses, repetitive loss and newly purchased properties.FEMA is redrawing flood maps to better reflect flood risk, which could cause homeowners' rates to go up or down next year."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.wdsu.com/article/gno-inc-challenges-flood-insurance-rate-hikes/3365641>