But this much is certain: There appears to be little the county commissioners can do to contest the new maps. Jason Schneider, a floodplain management engineer from the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), briefed commissioners Tuesday on the process of how the new maps were developed. His bottom line message: What you see is what you get. "After the flood of 1993 and the impact it had on this state, FEMA got pretty concerned," Schneider related. The new maps reflect what some county officials believe could be as much as a 30 percent increase in the number of properties now shown to be in a floodplain area. Floodplain areas are divided into one of three categories on the maps, with an 'A' area considered the highest probability of flooding when a river such as the Missouri River reaches flood stage. The other categories include medium-risk and low-risk flood areas. "You're creating a real hardship for some people who have never been classed as lying in a floodplain previously," said Presiding Commissioner Arden Engelage. "These residents have never had to deal with this before." But Schneider told commissioners the process for appealing new floodplain designations to FEMA would have little impact on getting those designations changed in the future. "Not much is likely to be reversed," he said. "The odds are simply not very good." Engelage said it appeared as if commissioners could only protest "street names that are wrong, stuff like that" under the new FEMA maps. Schneider told the commissioners there are presently 68 properties which have flood insurance in Warren County. The total value of that insurance is about $13.2 million. If a property owner is shown to lie in a floodplain under the new maps, Schneider said, that owner will not be required to carry flood insurance until such time as the property is either refinanced, improved or sold. That process is known as "grandfathering" and allows landowners time to ease into the new regulations. "But if the landowner elects to buy flood insurance now, he can get it at a price which reflects the present status as not lying in a floodplain," Schneider observed. "That can usually result in a substantial savings on the annual premium amount." If the landowner waits until after the property becomes zoned as a floodplain in late 2010, Schneider added, he will be subject to paying the full premium. Warren County was selected to receive new maps in 2005, Schneider said, as part of a federal government-sponsored $1 billion program to update every county within the United States. "But that $1 billion, divided up among all the states, didn't amount to a great deal of money for Missouri," Schneider noted. FEMA now plans to issue new maps for less than half of the state's roughly 114 counties. Warren County is among them. "You were really due for new maps," Schneider said. "Most of yours were done back in the 1980s." While more properties will be listed in a floodplain in 2010, Schneider said no base flood elevations changed from the maps currently in use. County Planning and Zoning Administrator Linda Gant proposed sending letters out to all landowners impacted by the new maps, a move endorsed by the commissioners.