Because the risk of flooding is potentially keeping new residents out of the valley, the Island Park Apartments is taking a unique step to ease resident concerns: offering to buy flood insurance for any resident that wants it.
“The real objective here isn’t to try and come up with some technical aspect of the risk,” said Director of Risk Management Eric Moselle. “It’s to try and deal with people’s fears.”
Moselle said the idea came to light during a brainstorming session several weeks ago, at which time management were preparing flood plans and making preparations for an emergency situation.
“Our residents at Island Park are right in the middle of the valley and have expressed concerns,” Moselle said.
Moselle said the question of how to better protect residents came up and someone proposed offering insurance for the residents.
“It sounded like such a great idea we decided to pursue it,” he said.
Moselle said there were also a small band of resident considering leaving the complex for higher ground.
“We did have folks coming in and expressing concerns,” he said, though he said there was “no mass exodus.”
In the end, Weidner Apartment Homes, which owns the 254-unit Island Park complex, decided to offer flood insurance to all residents, a cost to the company of $113 per resident for $20,000 of insurance (minus a $1,000 deductible) through the National Flood Insurance Program.
Among those resident who took the company up on its offer was Brenda Aumick, who has lived in a first floor apartment at Island Park for the past six months. Aumick said she had no insurance and the possibility of rising waters weighed heavy on her mind.
“There’s that possibility it could happen and it was a nice offer so I wasn’t going to pass it up,” she said.
Fellow resident Ivan Dunken has lived at Island Park for about a year and purchased flood insurance for himself earlier this year because the flood threat was so high.
In the case of residents like Dunken, who purchased insurance on their own, the company is reimbursing them for the price of their policy. In addition, Weidner is offering residents a chance to move to any of the company’s other apartment properties for free of they do not feel secure at Island Park.
“I thought that was a little bit above and beyond,” Dunken said.
And because the threat of a flood, though greatly reduced, is expected to hang over the valley for the next three to five years, Moselle said the coverage would be kept in place until the dam is fully repaired.
The Lakes Association, which maintains the water features at Island Park have also drained the lakes on the property to provide additional basins for rising waters.
Both Aumick and Dunken said they have seen fellow residents moving out because of the potential for flooding, but both said they were very happy and planning on staying where they were.
“It shows they care about their clients,” Aumick said.
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