A dramatic change to floodplain maps, proposed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has the Lake of the Ozarks community up in arms.

Hundreds of citizens attended a town hall meeting on Tuesday, February 25 in Camdenton with concerns they could lose their homes, businesses, and properties due to proposed revisions to FEMA's Floodplain Maps. The FEMA map revisions, if implemented, would impact the entire state of Missouri.

The Camden County Republican Central Committee (CCRCC) held the town hall meeting to discuss the projected revisions with citizen stakeholders. CCRCC Chairman John Beckett said FEMA and the SEMA declined an invitation to attend the meeting.

SEMA did respond to questions after the meeting. Those questions and answers can be viewed in the article below.

Lake Of The Ozarks Floodplain Map Q&A With Missouri's State Emergency Management Agency

Would floodplain changes by the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) put Lake of the Oza…

There were several state and local officials in attendance at the Feb. 25 event. Speakers at the meeting included Beckett, Camden County Presiding Commissioner Ike Skelton, Local real estate agent Stacy Shore, and former Camden County Presiding Commissioner Kris Franken.

According to Shore, if the maps are revised as presented online, approximately 10,000 properties in the new floodplain area would be forced to pay for flood insurance that they will "never need and cannot afford."

“If they have a mortgage and they cannot afford flood insurance their property can be seized and sold,” Shore said. “The majority of the 10,000 homes can prove, with a Letter of Map Amendments (LOMA) they are not in the 100-year floodplain, they have never flooded or even came close to being flooded.”

Shore's complete slideshow presentation can be found here.

100-year Floodplain

A 100-year floodplain is an area that has a 1% chance of being flooded in any given year. This defines the extent of the flood hazard within a county or community and is based on the statistical probability of a flood event occurring. Lake of the Ozarks' water level is controlled by two dams: Bagnell Dam at the lower end and Truman Dam at the upper end. Truman Dam was completed in 1979, creating Truman Lake, which helps with flood control on Lake of the Ozarks.

Franken said the main lake and the first four to five miles of each arm’s current flood elevation is 664 feet. This is according to North American Vertical Data, adopted in 1988 (NAVD 88). NAVD 88 is the official measuring system for the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

“For new construction standards, the lowest grade on your house above ground level has to be 665 or higher. What they are proposing does not meet any specific set elevations,” Franken said. “The test elevations we took based on the line they have drawn for the new 1% annual flood chance area varies from 676 feet of elevation to 700-plus feet of elevation. This can equal to an increase in elevation of more than 30 feet.”

“Based on actual events, the existing floodplain elevations at the Lake of the Ozarks have proven to be accurate and responsible,” Franken said. “In most of the areas where an expansion of the 1% chance area is proposed, the elevation increase is not only unreasonable, it is impossible. For example, the roadway surface on Bagnell Dam is at 668.4. That is an example of how much higher these elevations are than if there were water running over the top of the dam.”

History

Lake area stakeholders have fought and won several shoreline battles with both FEMA and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

According to Shore, the at-risk properties are not only located directly on the Lake of the Ozarks, but they also include second-tier properties and properties located near a stream or river. For example, with the proposed revisions, every property in Old Linn Creek will be found to be in a floodplain as well as every business in the Linn Creek Industrial Park.

“I would be forced to pay an estimated $11,000 annually for flood insurance on my home,” Shore said. The additional cost for flood insurance for a second-tier property near her home on Big Island was estimated to be $5,700 annually. Shore said the biggest losers would be condominium owners, who already have difficulty obtaining insurance.

In Missouri, the Floodplain Management Section administers the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for the state. FEMA/SEMA partners with NFIP, a multi-billion dollar for profit corporation. “FEMA is creating new flood plain insurance customers for themselves using fabricated climate change propaganda,” attendee and Watchdog Report Editor Jennie Wall said.

SEMA also partners with WSP USA Environment Infrastructure Inc. WSP is, according to Shore, Agenda 21 and Agenda 30 driven. “The drones many of us have seen on the Lake of the Ozarks are WSP drones that are mapping the bottom of the lake,” Shore suggested.

The operator of the small boat-drones that raised eyebrows and created plenty of buzz around the Lake area in 2024 told LakeExpo he could not reveal who his client was, due to confidentiality requirements in his contract.

Franken added that FEMA’s preference for using the “climate science” or Climate Informed Science Approach (CISA) is an irresponsible method of establishing flood elevations at the Lake of the Ozarks.

Shore surmises FEMA is “broke,” and this is a way for them to replenish their coffers, saying, “We all witnessed how they spent billions of dollars on illegal immigrants and then did not have the funds to help Americans who were devastated by natural disasters.”

Trump Executive Order Pauses FEMA Action For Now

Shore praised President Donald J. Trump for his Executive Order 14148: Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions. With this action President Trump revoked Executive Order 13690: Establishing a Federal Flood Risk Management Standard and a Process for Further Soliciting and Considering Stakeholder Input.

In a letter dated February 4, 2025, from FEMA Chief Counsel Adrian Sevier, with the subject: Pause of the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard, Sevier stated:

While FEMA considers further amending its regulations at 44 CFR part 9, the agency must pause implementation of the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS). FEMA must not consider any action as subject to the FFRMS pursuant to 44 CFR 9.7(c)(1). Rather, FEMA must rely only on 44 CFR 9.7(c)(2) to determine whether the proposed action is in the floodplain.

This is not the first time President Trump revoked a former president’s executive order pertaining to Federal Flood Risk Management. He also revoked President Obama’s Executive Order 13690 on August 15, 2017. “This is the order in which Obama enabled the ambiguous designations of climate science to inform new maps for the purpose of flood insurance,” Shore said.

Urging Political Action

According to Shore, FEMA's revision may have been stopped at the federal level, but SEMA has indicated they will move forward with the revised maps in 2025. “This is in Governor Kehoe’s hands and SEMA answers to him,” Shore said. “All we ask, is he follow President Trump’s lead and leave the maps we are currently operating under for the purpose of flood insurance as they are and follow accurate science.”

Commissioner Ike Skelton — photo by Janet Dabbs

Commissioner Skelton urged attendees to contact Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe at (573) 751-3222 or via email through his online portal at https://governor.mo.gov/contact-us/mo-governor.

“I ask that they do not sit in their office and throw numbers into a simulator and use that for determining the flood elevation,” Franken said. “They need to get out into the field and take measurements and look at real events that have occurred that are outside of the current flood map. Because if we do not have events that are occurring outside of the current flood map that means our current flood map is accurate and there is no reason to change it, yet they are.”

“I encourage everyone to stay engaged,” Commissioner Ike Skelton ended citing Article 1 of the United States Constitution. “All power is invested in the people.”