NRDC Mapping Tool Shows Homes Flooding Again and Again

WASHINGTON - More than 250,000 properties nationwide have had multiple claims under the National Flood Insurance Program, according to new federal data.

A new mapping dashboard, Flooded Again, published today by NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), provides the public and policy analysts a new way to access and make sense of this data.

These repetitive loss properties are found in every state and have cost the federal flood insurance program billions of dollars in claims. Few have had upgrades to reduce their future risk of flooding. Louisiana, which was hit by Hurricane Francine just last week, accounts for nearly one-fifth of all the properties with multiple flood insurance claims.

"We are seeing more and more homes damaged by floods because of the climate crisis combined with risky development and out-of-date infrastructure," said Anna Weber, a senior policy analyst at NRDC and co-author of the report. "Stronger hurricanes, more intense rainstorms and rising seas are all enacting a toll on people's lives. We need changes at all levels of government to make communities safer."

Historically, information on repeatedly flooded properties has been difficult to find. But this year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (which manages the NFIP) published anonymized data on properties with two or more federal flood insurance claims. This dataset includes a larger universe of properties than the "severe repetitive loss" records analyzed in NRDC's Losing Groundtool, which was updated earlier this year.

While every state has repetitive loss properties, flood-prone states on the Gulf and East Coast have the most. Four states -- Louisiana, Texas, Florida and New York -- account for more than half of these properties. Louisiana alone has more than 43,000 of them.

And risks of further flood damages remain: Fewer than one in four have had mitigation action - such as elevating the building or floodproofing the first floor. In addition, low-income communities and communities of color are both more likely to face chronic flooding and less likely to have the resources to address that risk.

Despite this sobering picture, in some ways the property owners represented in this dataset have an advantage: they have flood insurance at all. Fewer than half of property owners who are required to have flood insurance have that coverage, and the Society of Actuaries estimates that 87 percent of flood damages to single-family homes are notcovered by federal flood insurance. Preliminary estimates for uninsured losses from Hurricane Francine are already in the billions of dollars.

FEMA and Congress should enact commonsense policies that would help both those with, and without, flood insurance. The National Flood Insurance Program not only provides insurance, but also sets the minimum building and land use standards for flood-prone areas nationwide.

FEMA should:

• update the NFIP's national floodplain development standards to account for worsening floods and put the brakes on risky development;
• ensure that flood-risk maps are up to date and account for climate change;
• be granted authority to make flood insurance more affordable for low- and middle-income households;
• ensure home buyers and renters the right to know their new home's flood risk.

"Too many communities are repeatedly inundated with floodwaters, and long-overdue federal action means people across the country continue to face the dangerous, costly, and disruptive effects of floods," Weber said. "The good news is that we have the tools to reduce harm from the impact of storms and rising seas. Congress and FEMA just need to put them into action."

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).

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