Bull Junior Creek Floodplain

• FEMA to post two public notices providing a 90-day appeal period regarding the flood hazard revision. During this time appeals can be made to FEMA.
• Village staff works to draft a new floodplain ordinance to adopt the study and necessary language to administer floodplain rules using WDNR’s model ordinance.
• The Village Board will need to approve the new flood plain ordinance for the study to be recognized and administered.
• Upon the Letter of Map Revision (LOMR) being effective and the new floodplain ordinance being adopted, the Village will administer the new flood study of Bull Junior Creek and property owners may use it for their own purposes.

View an updated map here.

Village staff have put together an interactive map for property owner to view. (This does not include the newest updates map.) To access the interactive floodplain map, please click HERE. If you are looking for a specific address, enter the address in the bar in the upper right of the map. The existing floodplain is represented on the map as a light gray. The proposed floodplain is represented as blue.

• The current floodplain study of Bull Junior Creek for floodplain determinations was completed in April 1979 by the United States Geological Study (USGS). Since that time, technology has vastly improved. 
• In 1981, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reanalyzed the modeling to establish an estimated 100-year flood elevation north of Kowalski Road.
• New Flood Insurance Study was issued for Marathon County in 2010. No remodeling/remapping was performed.
• The Village obtained 1-foot contour data of Village extents in 2013. Mapped floodplain does not match up with new LiDAR (a remote sensing method used to examine the surface of the Earth) data.
• In 2017, The Village issued a request for proposal (RFP) for assistance in remodeling/remapping floodplain.
• In the summer of 2018, the Village contracted with AECOM to begin work in remodeling and remapping this floodplain. AECOM used their own modern modeling techniques along with 1-foot LiDAR data the Village acquired in 2013.
• On September 26, 2019, the Village of Kronenwetter held a public open house to present preliminary findings from AECOM’s study and answer questions. A copy of the presentation from the Open House can be found HERE.
• The study was presented to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in January of 2020. Both organizations completed their review in 2022.
• The Village of Kronenwetter posted notice in the Wausau Daily Herald of its intent to revise the flood hazard information on April 1, 2022.

Floodplains or Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA) are lowland areas adjacent to lakes, wetlands and rivers that are covered by water during a 1% or 100-year flood (also called Based Flood) on the Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs). The regulatory floodplain consists of two flood zones, the floodway and flood fringe. The floodway includes the river channel and areas adjacent to the channel which convey the 1% chance flood flows; the floodway experiences the deepest water and the highest flow velocities. The flood fringe includes the rest of the floodplain landward of the floodway and is primarily a backwater area that is not essential to conveyance. Generally, development is not allowed in the floodway, while it is allowed in the flood fringe as along as certain conditions are met.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), sets the 100-year floodplain boundaries through flood insurance rate studies.

You can view the interactive map the Village has posted on their website at  http://www.kronenwetter.org/department/bjcfloodplain.php. The websites interactive map contains the existing floodplain boundary and the result of the proposed floodplain. You can use the search feature in the upper right corner to find your property if it has an address. Keep in mind this map only shows the changes as part of the Bull Junior Creek floodplain study. You can visit the FEMA Map Service  Center to view all floodplains in the area.

If your home is in the 100-year floodplain it has a 26% chance of getting flooded over a 30-year mortgage period. If your home is deeper in the 100-year floodplain, your risk of flooding will increase. People outside of the 100-year floodplain are free of regulatory requirements, but not of risk. Federally- backed flood insurance is available to people outside of the 100-year flood zone as well for a discounted price.

No. Typical homeowner’s and commercial structure insurance policies do not cover flood damages. A separate Standard Flood Insurance Policy is required to cover damages caused by surface water during a flood event. Buildings located within a 100-year flood plain are required to have flood insurance if they are financed with a federally backed mortgage or home equity loan. Flood policies can be issued for most structures and their contents, including site built, modular and manufactured single family homes, condominiums and commercial structures.

Participation in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is voluntary. However, participation in the program is required in order to allow property owners to obtain flood insurance for their home and other structures on their property. Without the Village participating in the NFIP, property owners or buyers looking to purchase a home in the floodplain would not be able get a federally backed mortgage.

The standard for floodplain management is the 1% annual chance (100-year) flood. It is possible to go a very long period of time without experiencing the 1% annual chance flood. It is also possible to have 1% annual chance floods two years in a row. If you are located in the 100-year floodplain, we do not know when the 1% annual chance flood will occur, but at some point in time, it will occur.

If a house is located within the 100-year floodplain, it has a 26% chance of being flooded during the life of a 30-year mortgage. The same house during that same 30-year period has only a 1% chance of being damaged by fire.

If you have a federally back mortgage or are applying for a federally backed mortgage, your mortgage company will require you to obtain and maintain flood insurance in order to protect the mortgage company’s interests in your home. You are not required to maintain flood insurance once the mortgage is paid off, but it is recommended to protect your investment.

This means that the risk of flooding to your property is higher than previously thought under the previous floodplain study. The most important item from a regulatory stand point is whether your home or any structures are located in the mapped floodplain. Lots of properties have a portion of the parcel in floodplain, but the structures are located outside the mapped boundary on high ground.

The structure is the most important factor when considering the risk of flooding and the requirement to purchase floodplain insurance. As long as the home is not located in the mapped floodplain area, your mortgage company should not require you to purchase insurance.

That is correct. Based on the floodplain location in relation to the home, floodplain insurance should not be required. Insurance would be required where the floodplain actually covers the structure.

No, the map must be approved by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Federal Emergency Management Agency before it goes into effect. We expect that process to take 6-8 months once it is initiated.

If a structure is added to a floodplain, the mortgage holder will notify the owner of the change and they must purchase flood insurance within 45 days. The homeowner will qualify for the Newly Mapped procedure, which allows them to start on the lower-cost preferred risk policy (PRP). Every year after, premium increases of up to 18 percent will be applied until the premium rates reflect full-risk rates.

However, there is a benefit to property owners if they purchase a Flood Insurance Policy before the maps change and are notified by the mortgage holder. If they purchase flood insurance proactively, this will allow them to lock in the PRP premiums for up to an additional year, before increases could occur. The guidance document linked should be helpful. There are a few other situations that are explained in the document, such as obtaining an elevation certificate which may lower the homeowner’s rates.  https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1476977383542-  01c416aa819e4578026361fefeb96fd0/FEMA_HFIAA_NewlyMappedFS_072516.pdf

This means the risk of flooding to your property is less than previously believed. If a property is removed from the floodplain, the owners are responsible for canceling or getting the premiums lowered if they still wish to hold flood insurance. They usually must provide a copy of the map revision to have this approved by their mortgage company.

You won’t be able to drop your floodplain insurance until the WDNR and FEMA approve the maps which may take up to a year.

For existing LOMAs, most are pulled out of the floodplain or are now in the floodplain based on the updated elevations, so the new mapping should have these properties corrected without the need for a LOMA. If you believe you are not in the floodplain even with the corrections, you can use an existing elevation certificate or get a new elevation certificate, and have the community recertify the LOMA but based on the new Base Flood Elevations. The only way there should be a need for a LOMA is if the LIDAR topographic data provided was out of date or inaccurate, which could be the case for projects that took place after the Village received that data in 2013.

Generally speaking, development within the flood fringe is possible as long as the certain criteria are met. However, development within the floodway is not allowed. In either case, floodplain development comes with many risks and should be avoided. You can view the Village’s Floodplain Chapter for more details.

For more additional information or assistance pertaining to flood hazard mapping or floodplain management topics, contact a Map Specialist at the FEMA Map Information eXchange (FMIX) through the following channels:

Call: (1-877) FEMA MAP (1-877-336-2627) Monday through Friday, 8:00 am through 6:30 pm Eastern Time (ET)

Email: FEMAMapSpecialist@riskmapcds.com