What do you do with a product that’s riddled with flaws?

You can try to fix it, or take it off the market and start over.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency tried to do the former with its proposed flood maps for parts of Cumberland and York counties, but instead will do the latter, thanks to steady pressure from members of Maine’s congressional delegation, especially Sen. Susan Collins.

FEMA administrator Craig Fugate told Collins in a phone call Friday that he would offer to withdraw the maps that were subject to a public comment period and work with communities to revise them.

That was the right decision, as Collins noted, but it would have been bettered if they had never released the maps that were already shown to be inaccurate in the first place.

FEMA’s flood zone designations carry a huge economic impact to the communities that they cover. Buildings in the zone can be prohibited and inusrance rates affected.

The problems with the proposed FEMA map became apparent when Portland harbor, the home of a vibrant working waterfront through all kind of weather for centuries, was declared to be part of a “velocity zone” in which future development would be blocked.

The city’s planning staff was able to work with FEMA, point out where the maps were inaccurate and alter them to avoid a business catastrophe that would have been as bad as a hurricane. But there other municipalities up and down the coast would have been hard-pressed to make the same case, no matter how well-justified.

In a letter to Fugate, Collins noted that FEMA’s flood plan models may work for sandy shores that face the ocean and bear the full brunt of winds and water, but are less accurate for Maine’s rocky coastline, with its endless series of bays and inlets.

When making calculations here, the maps should have incorporated historical information about the real risk of flooding. FEMA knew there were problems with the accuracy of the Maine maps, yet the agency still submitted them for public comment, expecting cities and towns to fix the flaws.

That was the wrong way to go about it, and Collins was right to use her influence to put this product back into development.