Build, flood, rebuild: flood insurance’s expensive cycle

[Elderberry]

Houston Chronicle by  David Hunn, Ryan Maye Handy, and James Osborne 12/10/2017

The National Flood Insurance Program, designed to protect Americans from catastrophic floods, has failed in almost every way, encouraging people to buy and build in flood-prone areas while increasing the cost and magnitude of disasters.

Congress' efforts to reform the program have failed just as thoroughly.

Attempts to fix flood insurance have been derailed repeatedly by special interests, political expediency and powerful lobbies that have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into congressional campaigns, a three-month examination by the Houston Chronicle reveals. Banks, builders, insurers and real estate agents — supported by property owners and allies in Congress —have combined to thwart even the most practical changes.

Earlier this year, for example, a proposal to stop the federal government from insuring homes built in flood plains beginning in 2021 was scuttled by coastal lawmakers and the National Association of Home Builders, which spent $39 million lobbying Congress since 2005.

 The impact of Congress' failure is undisputed. The National Flood Insurance Program was supposed to discourage development in flood-prone areas, but new development has spread across flood plains, including thousands of homes in the Houston area that flooded during Hurricane Harvey.

More: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Build-flood-rebuild-flood-insurance-s-12413056.php

[Hoodat]

Yet another federal government failure.  There is a reason why flood insurance is prohibitively expensive in flood plains.  The government can easily dissolve itself from this by shutting down this idiotic program.

[Elderberry]

Yet another federal government failure.  There is a reason why flood insurance is prohibitively expensive in flood plains.  The government can easily dissolve itself from this by shutting down this idiotic program.

No.

Flood Insurance Premiums are Not Expensive Enough.

Harris County premiums, averaging about $550 a year, are only about one-third of the nearly $1,400 a year that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates is needed to cover claims for flood damage here.

And homeowners are not being punished for not carrying required flood insurance

It was designed to insure properties vulnerable to flooding, but only half of such properties carry flood insurance as required by law.

[Hoodat]

No.

Flood Insurance Premiums are Not Expensive Enough.

I was talking about regular flood insurance from private insurers - not the government insurance.