Congress Urged To Shift National Flood Insurance Program To Buyout Flood Prone Homes
As Congress is set to reauthorize the National Flood Insurance program in September, the Natural Resources Defense Council is urging a shift to moving homeowners to a safer area rather than rebuilding properties that repeatedly flood. Rob Moore with the NRDC says for each 100 dollars spent to rebuild homes, FEMA spends only $1.75 to move individuals to a less flood prone area.
“Many of those homeowners would probably prefer to relocate somewhere where flooding is no longer a part of their life and that would also save the flood insurance the expense of having to rebuild these properties.”
Moore says they recommend that the National Flood Insurance Program provides homeowners a guaranteed buyout if they no longer want to rebuild.
“The flood insurance program would often get a financial saving for helping people move to higher ground.”
Louisiana leads the country for the number of repeated flooded properties. He says another change Congress should make to the NFIP is for homeowners to be educated on the flooding history of their home, because they are currently denied access to that information.
“Currently the only people that can get it, already must have flood insurance and that information won’t be provided until after they filed their first damage claim, that’s not really the time to inform people that their home repeatedly floods.”
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