Lewisburg to host flood insurance roundtable with FEMA, PEMA officials

Lewisburg homeowners, landlords and small businesses will get a chance to hear directly from FEMA, PEMA and the Pennsylvania Insurance Department about flood coverage before the next storm season puts another claim on the line.

Lewisburg Borough said it will host a flood insurance roundtable on Wednesday, June 24, from 5 to 6 p.m. at 55 South Fifth Street. An agenda for the meeting lists a 4:30 p.m. start for registration in Borough Chambers, with the discussion running until 6 p.m. The borough said the session is open to anyone, but seating is limited and residents should register early.

The event comes at a practical moment for a river town that has spent years studying its flood risk. Lewisburg Borough says flood hazards can come from the West Branch Susquehanna River, Buffalo Creek and Limestone, also called Bull Run. A borough flood mitigation study launched in 2022 found those floodplains make up about one-third of the borough’s land area, putting residences, businesses, institutions and infrastructure in the path of water.

That geography matters for household budgets as much as for emergency planning. FEMA says most homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage, which means families and property owners can face large out-of-pocket losses if they discover too late that their coverage does not extend to rising water. The roundtable is expected to focus on the federally backed National Flood Insurance Program and the private flood insurance market, two parts of the market that can shape monthly premiums, mortgage requirements and the speed of recovery after a storm.

Lewisburg’s own flood materials point residents to the borough, SEDA-COG or the zoning department of CK-COG to determine a property’s flood hazard. FEMA says its Flood Map Service Center is the official public source for flood hazard information under the NFIP, while PEMA says it implements the program in Pennsylvania and provides floodplain-management training and mapping support. For owners trying to gauge whether a map change could raise costs or affect a sale, those are the agencies that will matter most.

The borough’s flood guidance also warns that certain utilities, including furnaces, should be elevated 18 inches above the base flood level under borough ordinance. That is the kind of detail that can affect not only repair costs after a flood, but also the price of making a property more insurable before one hits.

Lewisburg has lived with those risks for generations. The borough says it was devastated more than 50 years ago by Hurricane Agnes, and NOAA and National Weather Service data for the West Branch Susquehanna River at Lewisburg show flood stage at 18 feet, with major historic crests including 34.23 feet on June 24, 1972, and 25.91 feet on Sept. 8, 2011. For families, landlords and storefront owners near the water, the June 24 roundtable offers a chance to get ahead of the next expensive surprise.