A group of Pacific residents need city’s help in order to get answers from FEMA that why some homeowners in the floodplain need to buy flood insurance.

Half a dozen residents on the north side of Pacific attended the March 25 operations committee meeting. There is no need to buy flood insurance for homes that are fully paid for and have no mortgage.

“You’re only affected if you have a loan on your home”, said Kay LeClaire, who spearheaded the search for more information.

The city has been suggested by Alderman Steve Myers to contact FEMA and ask them to send a representative to Pacific to talk with homeowners. Mike Bates, operations committee chair said that he is worried that the city could not get the help required from FEMA as the city does not have a floodplain manager. Bates also said that they have no city administrator, no floodplain manager and no city engineer.

Since previous building commissioner and floodplain manager Dave Myers was allowed to go by the city in October 2011, the city has not had a floodplain manager. Mayor Jeff Palmore, who serves on the committee, finds the flood insurance question so puzzling that he would not even understand what questions to ask FEMA.

Palmore suggest that the city must put some efforts to determine the base flood elevation of each of the properties that are questioning FEMA designation. According to experts, there is also need to find out the base flood elevation that FEMA uses as a benchmark that places homes in the floodplain.