The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has approved a flood insurance program that would pay for a year of coverage for its most flood-ravaged community.
Under the program approved Monday, the county would reimburse some residents in Huntington for the cost of FEMA’s flood insurance. Swift–moving floodwaters from nearby Cameron Run, which swamped about 160 homes in a single night late last June, devastated the community last summer. Worst hit were homes along Cameron Run and Fenwick Drive, which sustained millions in property damage after a wall of putrid water rushed into basements and first floors.
The insurance is a temporary measure and does not address long-term solutions for preventing another flooding. The Army Corps of Engineers recently wrapped up a monthslong study of the event that laid out a number of costly flood prevention projects, including constructing flood walls and dredging Cameron Run. It’s highly unlikely any of those fixes can be in place by this summer.
“We can’t build a flood wall tomorrow, we can’t do the dredging tomorrow,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald Connolly said. “But we can provide relatively modest-cost insurance to make sure people are covered.”
To qualify, residents must live within a designated flood area in Huntington, have owned their homes as of Jan. 1 or before, and make no more than $108,360 per household, according to documents provided by Fairfax County. The effective date of the flood insurance can be no later than Dec. 31.
The program should cost the county $350,000.
