NRDC Report: Repeatedly Flooded Homes Demonstrate Policy Failures

A rapidly increasing number of federally insured properties flooding repeatedly signals the need for state and federal action to improve protections for homeowners, a new Natural Resources Defense Council analysis shows.

NRDC used data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to identify the most flood-prone properties covered by the National Flood Insurance Program to add to iots interactive dashboard, Losing Ground: Severe Repetitive Flooding in the United States. The dashboard enables the public to see which communities have the most frequently flooded homes, and which areas are seeing the biggest increases in flooding now.

The dashboard shows 44,616 severe repetitive loss properties that have flooded five times each on average, with the NFIP paying to rebuild the home after each flood. The number of these properties has jumped nearly 20% in the four years since the last release of this data, according to the NRDC.

Highlights of the data include:

• These properties are less than 1% of those covered by federal flood insurance but account for about 10% of NFIP’s claims – or about $10 billion total.
• Fewer than 25% of the repeatedly flooded properties have received assistance to mitigate flood risks, while many more owners of these threatened homes have just dropped their flood insurance altogether.
• States that have been battered by repeated hurricanes have seen the biggest jump in these flood-prone properties, with communities in Florida, Louisiana and Texas topping the list.
• Claims in Texas and Louisiana accounted for almost half of the total payouts for these properties.

The NRDC asserts the data demonstrates the urgent need for action on flooding, including federal legislation to update the NFIP to reflect the realities of climate change and address affordability of flood insurance, FEMA regulations to update the minimum building code and land use standards for jurisdictions participating in the NFIP, and federal grant program updates to make funding for home buyouts and other forms of hazard mitigation faster, more accessible, and more equitable.

The NRDC is also calling for state and local government action to establish and enforce their own strong building and land use codes, ensure residents have a right to know their home’s flood risk and to ban harmful practices like fill and build.