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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />002248 <br /> <br />CHAPTER VII <br /> <br />DRAFT <br />August 30, 1989 <br /> <br />RECOMMENDATIONS ON WHETHER COMPENSATION SHOULD BE RECOMMENDED <br />IN SPECIFIC CASES OF ECONOMIC HARDSHIP RESULTING FROM IMPACTS <br />OF THE 1983 FLOOD ON PROPERTY OUTSIDE THE FLOODWAY WHICH <br />COULD NOT REASONABLY HAVE BEEN FORESEEN. <br /> <br />There are certain inherent and foreseeable risks <br />associated with residing in or maintaining a business in <br />riverine environments, especially within defined flood plain <br />areas. The level of assumed risk can be reduced through <br />floodproofing, flood insurance, and other means. The <br />standard level of protection that has been adopted in the <br />administration of the National Flood Insurance Act is the <br />one-in-one hundred year frequency flow. Higher levels of <br />flows having lesser frequency of occurrence, however, can <br />occur at any given time. The level of protection and flood <br />insurance elected determines the level of riSk assumed. An <br />added margin of safety or lower level of assumed risk can be <br />obtained in the Floodway Fringe area by maintaining <br />structures and improvements at an elevation greater than the <br />minimum elevation required in excess of the Floodway <br />elevation. Barring full protection, there is a forseeable <br />risk associated with residing in or doing business in or near <br />a flood plain. <br /> <br />Given the long standing Hoover Dam Flood Control <br />Regulations, the existence of the Colorado River levee <br />system, and the prior warnings by the Bureau of Reclamation <br />and the Corps of Engineers relative to the probability of <br />high river flows and flood plain encroachments, the level of <br />flows experienced in 1983 were reasonably foreseen. However, <br />there were areas of substantial property damage outside the <br />levee system and away from the river which had not been <br />shown, or which were not reasonably known, to be subject to <br />flooding or at least not at the 1983 river flow levels. <br />Examples of such cases were documented in testimony submitted <br />during the September 7 and 8, 1983 Congressional oversight <br />hearings on the 1983 high Colorado River flows. Many of <br />those affected were of low or modest incomes. Some suffered <br />substantial property and business losses, relocation <br />expenses, and other losses for which no or only partial <br />compensation was provided. <br /> <br />VII -1 <br />