Sande said at a council meeting last month that the motivation for the certification requirement is probably the heavy publicity about failed levies flooding communities in recent years. But those failures were typically earthen levies, not the reinforced concrete walls and rip-rap covered levies along the Minnesota River in the Mankato area.

North Mankato got another surprise from FEMA in May. The original requirement mentioned only the need to have the certification completed within two years. The latest letter stated that maps may be revised to add “flood hazard areas” in the city if a progress report isn’t submitted a year sooner — by April 14, 2010.

“After you’ve signed up, then ‘Oh, by the way, you have the 12-month requirement,’” Sande said.