As a result, there is now legislation in Congress that would essentially delay the Biggert-Waters reforms for several years.

That sounds like a good idea, one that would allow both those who want to do away with the NFIP and those who want Biggert-Waters repealed outright can sit down and work out a compromise that would serve both the taxpayers who fund the NFIP and the homeowners who live and die with the program.

We have already seen in a small way the problems that implementing Biggert-Waters immediately will bring.

In waterfront areas, those who want to sell their homes to move to higher ground, often cannot. The buyers cannot get a mortgage because they cannot get flood insurance until the new FEMA flood maps are finalized. In some cases, the prospective homeowners have been told that the federal subsidies will soon end and that they may well have to pay tens of thousands of dollars a year to get flood insurance.

Some may be willing to bear the burden, to pay or to self-insure. Most will not be willing to take the gamble, and the homes sit fallow.

Something needs to be done. Grandfather in those who now participate in the NFIP and allow their increases to come over the next 10 or 15 years. Modify that plan for new owners, but do not make it so onerous that communities will disappear because nobody can afford to live there.

Most local waterfront homeowners are not wealthy and their homes are not vacations. They are primary residences in stable communities.

Lawmakers need to find a way to keep it that way.