“Fields flooded that had never flooded before, in areas that we planned to remove from the flood plain,” said Bathke. “But the imagery showed us which areas we couldn’t remove, which would have been next to impossible without it.”
The post-flood imagery clearly showed that some of the areas they had planned to remove could certainly fall victim to a nasty flood. If Davison County had removed residential areas from the flood plain that they originally thought were not at risk, new homeowners in those areas may not have considered purchasing coverage from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
“If they’ve got a $200,000 mortgage, and don’t have NFIP insurance, then standard insurance wouldn’t cover flood damage whereas the NFIP might pay out up to $250,000,” explained Bathke. “If you lose $50,000 between gutting the basement and losing your belongings, getting that money is incredibly important to help recovery efforts.”
In the event of another flood, EagleView imagery has provided Jeff with accurate information to identify flood risk for Davison County residents. “I don’t want someone to buy a property, watch it get flooded, lose their life savings, then blame the flood plain department,” he said.
Due to cuts in government spending, Jeff’s budget has been trimmed from time to time to eliminate unnecessary programs. Fortunately, because EagleView is considered mission critical across all his departments, it is always an easy resource to defend.
“When it comes to EagleView, I can explain how we use the product and how much time and money we save, so it’s easy to make the case,” said Jeff. “Do you want to spend $23,000 per year on the flights, or $75,000-80,000 on another staff and benefits?”