The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), the FEMA-run program that is America’s only provider of flood insurance for homes, has been a financial loser for years. One big reason for the program’s money woes, it turns out, is FEMA’s habit of paying for multiple claims on low-lying properties that flood over and over again.
This month, the Houston Chronicle published an in-depth analysis of the flood program’s repeat-flooding problem (see: “Flood Games: Manipulation of flood insurance leads to repeat disasters,” by Mark Colette). Wrote the Chronicle: “Officials in Houston and across the country are failing to enforce a central pillar of the taxpayer-subsidized National Flood Insurance Program: Making sure severely damaged properties are elevated or removed from flood plains. Thousands of such homes get rebuilt and then flood again, often for more than they are worth, costing taxpayers more than $1 billion in repeat losses.”
In Texas, naturally enough, the problem is big. “Texas has more flooded properties with evidence of this problem than any other state but Louisiana,” the paper reported; “Houston has more than any other city, a Houston Chronicle investigation found. Seven of the nation’s 10 most frequently substantially damaged properties are in Houston. Those seven have had 107 damage claims totaling $9 million, even though the combined value of those buildings is just $426,000.”
In a followup report, the Chronicle presented graphics and maps of the results of the paper’s own number-crunching (see: “Flood Games: Here’s where home elevations weren’t being enforced after floods,” by Mark Colette). One map ranks states and communities in the repetitive loss category: Louisiana is the top state, with Texas a close second, but Houston is the top city for repeat losses, with nearby Harris County in second place. Another map calls out the nation’s top 100 repeat-loser properties; the top property, located in Houston, has cost the NFIP more than $2.5 million for 21 flood claims, although the dwelling itself is valued at only $116,335.
The paper also posted its database for its analysis as an Excel file at a separate link hosted by software hosting service GitHub (see: “Severe Repetitive Loss Properties”).
Meantime, notes the Chronicle, the National Flood Insurance Program itself is living on borrowed time: “The deeply indebted program is set to lapse July 31 without congressional reauthorization, and lawmakers have put forward a host of potential reforms to tie to that vote, but none directly address the costly problem of poorly enforced elevation requirements.”
