Kyle Bagenstose, Dinah Voyles Pulver and Kevin Crowe of USA Today report on the First Street Foundation’s most recent flood insurance study.
- The First Street Foundation has found that the rates under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) will need to quadruple in the nation’s most flood-prone areas in order for the NFIP to remain solvent.
- The NFIP, which is billions of dollars in debt, provides about 95% of the nation’s flood coverage.
- Rates under the NFIP oftentimes do not accurately reflect flood risk for properties, leaving taxpayers across the nation on the hook to pay the cost.
- This report from the First Street Foundation highlights the need for the NFIP to be reformed to accurately reflect flood risk.
“[I]naccurate pricing has left the NFIP in the red. Its coffers were wiped out by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The program suffered additional hits from hurricanes Sandy, Harvey and Irma. Congress bailed out the program in 2017 with $16 billion in debt relief, leaving the ultimate cost of those storms on the backs of the American taxpayer.”
Read the full article here.
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