Meh. Politics

My father and grandfather were both Land Surveyors. I'm familiar with Flood Insurance. It was supposed to discourage building in flood plains, or buying houses in them, but see how well that worked out. People like to build towns along rivers. How many houses in your town are actually on the bluffs?

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@electrosexguy

From what I have noticed there are not that many built on the bluffs. At least not close to the edge. Only a couple I notice when driving on I-29. Those houses are outside of the city and in a more rural area.

When created the intent of the federal flood program was to make insurance available to those in flood prone areas because private insurance would not write policies for those homes. Lack of insurance would have acually discouraged buying and building homes in flood plains as financing for purchase or building would not be available from banks due to risk of loss.

Having the program had the opposite effect. Financing was available so lenders were willing to lend for purchase and building. Without the federal program many of the homes and commercial buildings (e.g., hotels) would not be there on the coast because once taken out by storm surge during a hurricaine they most likely would not have been rebuilt.

Besides keeping rates artificialy low in the program, FEMA has had an issues for at least a couple decades of not keeping its flood maps up-to-date which lets structures get financed without flood insurance. Though I know of a case (friend) whose house was designated in a flood plain in an update map but was in an areal where the structure was in no danger.

During 2021 there was a push to get private insurance to start writing policies which I believe was something the republicans were calling for. Private insurance companies have stepped up and are now writing flood policies or adding flood coverage as a rider on home policies.

While private insurance companies have started to step up there are two issues in their writing policies.

One is that lenders were not recognizing coveage from private insurance policies as being equal to that of the federal flood program so would not lend based on those policies. I don't remember but may have been resolved in a renewal of the program. I am thinking that was one of the issues in 2021.

Second issue is that insurance regulators and FEMA are concerned about private insurance cherry picking what they will cover. Basically leaving those structures that have been the issue with the federal program because of repeated claims and thus leaving tax payers on the hook.