Flood insurance rates are expected to spike next year, Lycoming County officials said Thursday in a presentation on the National Flood Insurance Program.

The program, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, offers subsidized rates now but will change to actuarial rates in October 2020.

“The government likes to change things on us,” said Chelsea Blair, county hazard reduction planner. “Insurance rates right now may be $1,000 to $3,000 (per year). We can look at flood insurance rates (increasing to) $9,000 to $12,000.”

“It’s kind of scary, right? Big numbers,” she said. “But they’re going to be giving (the program) a more comprehensive look.”

The state is looking at how flooding affects homes and flood insurance rates, as well as what kinds of preventative measures individuals and communities are taking, such as stabilizing stream banks, she said.

“They are beginning to understand that a large percentage of the tax base is along the river and creeks,” Blair said. “People are trying. Communities are trying.”

In addition to taking environmental preventative measures, people also can do things at home to help decrease the cost of flood insurance or at least minimize damage caused by flooding.

Remember the acronym FRED, said David Hubbard, county zoning administrator.

FRED — or floodproof, relocate, elevate or demolish — is a set of options available to protect properties and ensure a community is in compliance with the insurance program.

To floodproof includes taking actions like moving basement utilities up to higher floors, while relocating might be a better option for some. Elevate refers to lifting a home, with stilts or by other means, above the base flood elevation.

While those three options help to keep the tax base in place, the fourth, demolition, is reserved for worst-case scenarios.

“We try to do the first three before we get to the fourth,” Hubbard said.

Whether by community efforts to maintain waterways or individual efforts to floodproof homes, the most important thing to do is make sure municipalities are compliant with the National Flood Insurance Program. To do this, communities must comply with their zoning and flooding ordinances, which already should be approved by emergency management and other federal authorities.

“At anytime, FEMA can come in and look at any one of your municipalities,” Blair said, adding that entire communities can be kicked out.

Though private insurance may be a preferable option for some, the problem is that private insurance will follow the federal government’s lead, meaning homeowners in areas not in the insurance program are less likely to receive private coverage, she said.

“They don’t want to put houses at risk that they insure,” she said. “Remember, it’s a money-making business.”

To be part of the national program means to have faster relief funding; without it, communities are at risk, she said.

There is a safety net of sorts for areas that perhaps have a homeowner or two who refuse to take the necessary steps to comply — section 1316 of the program allows communities to remove singular properties from the program, she added.

“A community in its entirety can get kicked out of NFIP. Again, scary,” Blair said. “You do not have the insurance back-up, you do not have the federal relief back-up.

“If you need help with anything, contact the county. We’re trying to be the bigger sibling here,” she said. “We don’t want to get you guys in trouble, we don’t want to get in trouble.”