Flooded Again: Visualizing Repeated Flooding Across the U.S.

Visit https://www.nrdc.org/resources/flooded-again-flood-data-visualization-tool to explore NRDC's Flooded Again dashboard.

For communities across the country, flooding is an all-too-frequent experience-and, often, one with devastating consequences.

Over 250,000 properties in the United States have had multiple claims under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). These "repetitive loss properties" are found in every U.S. state as well as Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and Washington, D.C. They account for over 750,000 flood insurance claims, at a cost of billions of dollars as well as harms to physical and mental health, housing instability, and cascading disruptions to daily life.

Historically, information on repeatedly flooded properties has been difficult to find. But in early 2024, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (which manages the NFIP) made anonymized repetitive loss data publicly available for the first time. This dataset includes a larger universe of properties than the "severe repetitive loss" records analyzed in our Losing Ground tool.

NRDC's new Flooded Again dashboard allows users to explore FEMA's repetitive loss property data and highlights troubling trends related to flood risk, as well as policy solutions that can help make communities safer. Click through the maps to explore where repeatedly flooded properties are located and what has (and hasn't) been done to reduce their risk. Next, take a closer look at your own community to see how it compares to others across the country.

While every region of the country has repetitive loss properties, flood-prone states on the Gulf and East Coasts have the most. Louisiana alone has over 43,000 repetitive loss properties, and only 22% have received some kind of mitigation action (like elevation or floodproofing) to reduce the risk of future flood damage. Most are single-family homes that serve as their owners' primary residences, and a 2023 report found that many repetitive loss properties are found in neighborhoods with high percentages of people 65 years or older.

Despite this sobering picture, in some ways the property owners represented in this dataset are the lucky ones: they have flood insurance at all. It's important to keep in mind that the dashboard only includes properties that have had multiple flood insurance claims, and not all properties that have faced multiple floods. In fact, less than half of property owners who are legally required to have flood insurance actually do, and the Society of Actuaries estimates that 87% of flood damages to single-family homes are not covered by NFIP insurance. For every property in the dataset, there are likely many more that experience repeated flooding, but without the financial safety net of insurance coverage-with the highest coverage gap among the lowest-income households.

The good news is that some common-sense changes to the NFIP and related programs would go a long way toward addressing current flood risk and better preparing our communities for the future. The NFIP not only provides insurance, but it sets the floor for building and land use standards in flood-prone areas nationwide, and its maps guide floodplain development decisions across the country. Visit the Flooded Again page more details on these policy solutions:

• Updating the NFIP's national floodplain development standards to account for worsening floods and put the brakes on risky development.
• Ensuring that flood risk maps are up to date and account for climate change.
• Making flood insurance more affordable for low- and middle-income households.
• Giving home buyers and renters the right to know their home's flood risk.
• Increasing funding for flood risk reduction and make it faster and easier to access.

Repeated flooding, whether from coastal storms, increased rainfall, higher tides, or outdated infrastructure, is already a reality for many communities, and many more face increased risk in the coming decades. Like other climate and environmental hazards, flooding disproportionately harms low-income communities and communities of color, and reducing flood risk is a critical environmental justice priority. Local, state, and federal agencies all have a role to play in addressing repeated flooding and making communities safer for everyone.

Ready for a deeper dive into flood damage data? Visit our Losing Ground dashboard to explore trends in severe repetitive loss properties, the subset of repetitive loss properties that have faced the most frequent and costly floods.

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