Here's why this is happening. Prior to Harvey the USGS wants to remap ground surface elevation every decade, especially Urban areas. LiDAR was last flown in our region in 2008 before IKE hit. The USGS cannot afford to foot the entire bill so they work with local government as part of a cost sharing program.
This for the 13 local counties around and including Harris:
http://www.h-gac.com/lidar-cost-share/default.aspxFt. Bend flew theirs in 2017 but will be on board for a regional update in 2028. It's cheaper this way and the state is also involved with this. In '08 the minimum standard was 2 points per square meter, now it's 4 points but the resolution will be higher because the sensors are better than min standard.
Once all this is done engineering departments and flood control departments can start to update their modeling. FEMA will also get this data and in working with the flood control agencies and with all the recent flooding data they will recalculate the 100 year flood plain. It is highly anticipated the new 100 year will include vast areas of the existing 500 year. The policy changes now are meant to get ahead of FEMA changes which can take 3-5 years due to the public comment period.
The changes are being made now to make compliance in the future easier.
https://www.fema.gov/community-compliance-programI'm 100% for this, make the homeowner responsible for bearing the cost of their decision on where to build and not make the tax payers bail them out when a storm hits later.
Lastly, once the 100yr is expanded, those without flood insurance and with a mortgage will now be required to have flood insurance if their loan is owned by Fannie or Freddie, and if not the banks may have similar requirements. So they will be forced to purchase insurance at the 100yr rate.
This is happening all over the US. The next step is to raise the cost of insurance so the fund isnt perpetually bankrupt.