ISLETON, Calif. — The small Delta town of Isleton is the first-and-only in the state, so far, to pilot a new community-based flood insurance initiative.
It’s a partnership between the Department of Water Resources, California Department of Insurance, UC Davis PhD candidate and researcher Kathleen Schaefer and the Delta Region Geologic Hazard Abatement District (GHAD), which was formed about two years ago to address flood risk and flood insurance in the city of Isleton.
“Less than half the people who live in Isleton have flood insurance, and they have a very real flood risk. So if something were to happen, it could be catastrophic both for the individual and for the community,” Schaefer told ABC10.
Isleton has a population of about 800 people. It’s located on land that’s entirely surrounded by rivers and sloughs, meaning people who live there at the mercy of levies.
Iva Walton owns Mei Wah Beer Room on Main Street and moved to Isleton a decade ago.
“Second year I lived here, the water got right up to the bank over there, looked like maybe a foot below it,” she said, gesturing to the levy right next to her property. “I was very nervous, but my neighbor was like, ‘Eh, don’t worry about it. I’ve seen it higher.’ So I trusted her and we got through it.”
Walton is also on the city council and chair of GHAD.
“Our risk is fairly low in a sense. We’re still living on a river and anything is possible,” Walton said.
Long-timers in Isleton remember the devastating flood of 1972, when one of the levees surrounding the town broke, ushering in feet of flood water.
Isleton’s mayor Pam Bulahan was nine years old when her family had to quickly evacuate. She told ABC10 she remembers seeing waves of water rushing across fields toward town. The flood displaced her family for two years as they rebuilt.
Just recently, the California Department of Insurance announced Isleton is the first-and-only city in the state piloting a new community-based flood insurance initiative, funded for two years by a $200,000 grant from the California Department of Water Resources and implemented by GHAD.
Schaefer said the pilot involves buying a community-wide flood insurance policy, and if flood waters reach a certain level, all property owners in town will automatically get a pay-out — up front — of up to $10,000 to spend on whatever they need in the immediate aftermath.
“It would be a nice assurance that you're not just stuck — well, I can't say ‘high and dry,’ but ‘low and wet.’ You're not just stuck, you know? So there'd be a way to start taking care of yourself, your family and your property,” Walton said. “Hope to never experience the pay-out, but it’s good to have if we do have that kind of disaster.”
Project leaders hope to buy that policy with the grant money by the end of the year.
“We want to learn from this so that we can perhaps deploy it throughout the Central Valley,” Schaefer said. “We've been having conversations with the Department of Water Resources and the Department of Insurance to extend the program to 35 small communities in the Central Valley that have a small community flood risk reduction study.”
For now, the pilot is grant-funded, but Isleton voters will decide next year whether to continue to fund it through property tax.
Leaders of this pilot project are still working out the details, like how and whether to include renters in this insurance policy. That and more they’ll be working on in the coming months.
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