The first selectman in Middlebury is bringing FEMA officials together with people who find themselves unable to sell their homes because of FEMA's flood risk map.
While some homes on Porter Avenue in Middlebury are high and dry, homes on the west side are in a special hazard flood zone.
Cathy Konnik can't even see the nearby Long Swamp Brook from her porch, but she says in FEMA's eyes she's as vulnerable to a flood as people who live along Long Island Sound.
"Right now we are the highest risk profile that exists," Konnik said.
She'd like to see FEMA change its flood zone map of Middlebury to reflect the absence of flooding and the town's flood control measures.
There are probably around ten families that live on this road that were here when that work was done.
She's lost not one, not two, but three prospective sales of her home to people when they found out they needed to buy flood insurance to get a mortgage. The last buyer backed out at closing, after she'd moved out. Konnik only found out she had to get flood insurance herself when she refinanced four years ago.
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The initial payment for us was $400 a year. It has gone up every single year since and I now pay almost $2,000 a year for flood insurance for this home.
No floods, no insurance claims here in recent years but the only way to buy one of these houses without flood insurance is with straight cash.
