The country's flood insurance program is sinking. Rescuing it won't be easy.

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: July 17, 2017 at 8:23:37 AM EDT
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] The country's flood insurance program is sinking. Rescuing it won't be easy.
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> The country’s flood insurance program is sinking. Rescuing it won’t be easy.
> By Brady Dennis
> Jul 16 2017
> <https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/the-countrys-flood-insurance-program-is-sinking-rescuing-it-wont-be-easy/2017/07/16/dd766c44-6291-11e7-84a1-a26b75ad39fe_story.html>
>
> Time after time, as the river has risen and the water has crept up Roosevelt Street, Leni-anne Shuchter has fled the 
> white clapboard home she bought more than four decades ago. 
>
> There was the night in 1984 when rescuers plucked her from a neighbor’s roof as floodwaters engulfed her house. And 
> the months in 2011 when she and her husband, John Van Seters, lived in a hotel after torrential rains from Hurricane 
> Irene forced them to gut walls and floors and replace nearly everything they owned. 
>
> In between, other storms have forced her to file claim after claim with the troubled National Flood Insurance Program 
> so she could rebuild. Yet the small home remains as vulnerable as ever, a reality reflected by its falling value in 
> recent years. 
>
> “If I had a choice, I would sell,” said the 65-year-old Shuchter, who dreams of retiring to Arizona or Nevada. “I 
> don’t need to deal with this anymore. [But] the reality of selling is nil.”
>
> The couple’s house is what the federal government defines as a “severe repetitive loss property” — one of many that 
> have been covered over and over again by taxpayers, the cumulative payouts often far exceeding what the structures 
> are worth. Nationwide, 11,000 such properties dot coastal zones or other low-lying areas, and their numbers continue 
> to grow, in part because of the effects of climate change and ongoing development. 
>
> One house outside Baton Rouge, valued at $55,921, has flooded 40 times over the years, amassing $428,379 in claims. A 
> $90,000 property near the Mississippi River north of St. Louis has flooded 34 times, racking up claims of more than 
> $608,000. And an oft-flooded Houston home has received more than $1 million in payouts — nearly 15 times its assessed 
> value of $72,400. The data is collected by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees the insurance 
> program.
>
> The extreme cases are only a fraction of the NFIP’s 5 million active policies, but they historically have accounted 
> for about 30 percent of its claims. And while they’re a financial albatross for taxpayers, the claims are hardly the 
> program’s only challenge.
>
> The NFIP, which must be reauthorized by the end of September, is nearly $25 billion in the red — a debt that 
> administrator Roy Wright says he sees no way to pay back. 
>
> “Only Congress can deal with that past loss,” Wright said last week . “What we’re focused on today is ensuring that 
> going forward, we’re putting ourselves on a sound financial footing.”
>
> On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are scrambling to overhaul the half-century-old program. Allowing it to lapse Sept. 30 
> would risk disrupting the buying and selling of homes in flood-prone areas across the country.
>
> The NFIP has long enjoyed bipartisan support, if for one simple reason. “Where it rains, it can flood, so no one in 
> the country is insulated,” said Laura Lightbody, who directs an initiative at the Pew Charitable Trusts aimed at 
> helping communities better prepare for flood risks. “It touches all 50 states.”
>
> But not equally. Data shows that some of the worst flooding, and often the most frequent, has occurred along the Gulf 
> Coast of Louisiana and Texas. Houses along the Mississippi River have repeatedly been deluged. And the Atlantic coast 
> from Miami to Boston faces perpetual — and escalating — threats. Although there are certainly beachfront mansions 
> affected, many homes belong to working-class Americans.
>
> [snip]
>
> Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: <http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/>



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