Dozens of property owners along Sea Island Drive at Eagle Lake whose homes were obliterated or severely damaged by the April 24 tornado can attest to the adage that when government tries to fix one problem it often creates others.

As these people, most of them retirees or owners of weekend or vacation homes, prepare to rebuild, they’re learning they must elevate any new construction above the 100-year flood plain, which varies from one lot to the next. That’s because Warren County’s continued eligibility for people to buy National Flood Insurance Program policies — subsidized by taxpayers — depends on the board of supervisors not allowing any new structures or substantial reconstruction below the flood benchmark. It doesn’t matter that the Sea Island and other residents lost their property to wind instead of water. The NFIP regulations apply even though no floodwater has entered any home there since 1973 or that many built since then were designed to accommodate a foot or more of water — any more would be highly unlikely — without substantial damage to living areas.

Vicksburg wrestled with the NFIP after flooding west of North Washington Street in 2008 and 2009. The reality for homeowners flooded out there was that even with relocation stipends, even an optional flooded property buy-out program was not workable. That’s because any home a flood victim might buy would cost more than the property they owned and they were retirees or otherwise could not qualify for loans or mortgages. North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield was a driving force behind allowing some of these people to return to their homes — if they signed waivers promising never again to file an NFIP claim.

The situation at Eagle Lake seems especially nonsensical given that Warren County imposes few other construction controls. In other words, no inspector is going to come knocking on the door if a new house is built entirely from quarter-inch plywood, plumbed with garden hose and wired with old extension cords — as long as it is above the level federal estimates are that floodwaters might reach.

The property owners need to understand that “guidance” they are receiving on reconstruction requirements is not something supervisors adopted as a matter of choice. The NFIP has saved the bacon of a lot of families, especially along the river. Warren County and the City of Vicksburg must follow directives that keep local NFIP policies available.

Adding hardship and expense to people choosing to reinvest after a storm is counterintuitive, to say the least. And this situation provides yet another reminder why the phrase, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help,” prompts some people to turn and run.