The 10 most costly U.S. floods
A single inch of floodwater can cause up to $25,000 in damage that isn't covered under most homeowners policies, says FEMA, and with a stronger-than-average hurricane season on the horizon it's important homeowners prepare for the threat of flooding that often accompanies these storms. FEMA manages the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which supplies a network of companies who provide flood coverage to those living in one of 23,000 participating NFIP communities. Private flood insurance has only recently become something insurers were willing to touch. Technology has allowed advances in modeling risk that have made firms more comfortable undertaking the coverage. According to the Insurance Information Institute, private flood carriers can often offer higher coverage than the NFIP – which is capped at $250,000 for residential buildings and $500,000 for non-residential. While having proper insurance coverage is imperative after a flood, preventative measures are always preferable to claims. The NFIP even requires its communities to adopt and enforce floodplain management regulations to reduce the effects of flooding. So, how can communities become more flood resilient? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created a checklist that can be used to evaluate how prepared your area is for potential flooding. Questions on the EPA's checklist include:
- Does the community's comprehensive plan have a hazard element or flood planning section?
- Does the community have a local Hazard Mitigation Plan approved by FEMA and the state emergency management agency?
- Do other community plans (e.g., open spaces or parks plans) require or encourage green infrastructure techniques?
- Do all community plans consider possible impacts of climate change on areas that are likely to be flooded?
- Are structural flood mitigation approaches (such as repairing bridges, culverts and levees) and non-structural approaches (such as green infrastructure) that require significant investment of resources coordinated with local capital improvement plans and prioritize in the budget?
You can view the EPA's Flood Resilience Checklist in full here. In the slideshow above, we count down the ten most expensive flooding events in the U.S., according to the Insurance Information Institute.
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