A third of Hampton Roads residents say recurrent flooding is an issue in their neighborhood, according to ODU report

Dec. 09--A third of Hampton Roads residents who responded to an Old Dominion University survey said that recurrent flooding is a problem in their neighborhood.

That's up from about 22 percent of respondents who said the same four years ago, the university's Social Science Research Center said this week in a section of its annual Life in Hampton Roads report. The 687 responses were weighted by city population, race, age, gender and cell-versus-landline phone usage to be representative of the region.

The responses about recurrent flooding varied widely depending on location. The highest concerns came out of Norfolk and Portsmouth, followed by Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. Only about 10 percent of those in Newport News and 16 percent in Suffolk felt that flooding was an issue in their neighborhood.

"I think this is an issue, regardless of where you live, you probably need to be paying attention," said Tancy Vandecar-Burdin, associate director of the research center. "Just because your neighborhood may not be impacted, where you go for school, pleasure, recreation (might be). I think all these things are going to be scrutinized for years to come."

Across most of the metrics that ODU studied, residents showed increasing concern about flooding compared to years past.

More than 70 percent of people in ODU's report said they are somewhat or very concerned with Hampton Roads flooding, with the majority in the "very" category.

Sixty-three percent said they believe flooding in the region has increased over the past three decades. That's up from 60 percent last year and has steadily increased since 2014, when it was at about 46 percent. Only 4 percent believed flooding had decreased.

The region's water levels are conservatively estimated to rise by more than a foot by 2050, federal officials say.

Vandecar-Burdin said there's a slight disconnect between the overall regional concern about flooding and the rates of people who have flood insurance. The portion of those with insurance has stayed relatively consistent since 2014.

A majority -- about 60 percent -- of survey respondents said they are either somewhat or very concerned that rates will increase in Hampton Roads. Research shows waterfront home values in the area are already falling because of flooding issues, in part due to lofty insurance rates.

Only about 14 percent of respondents said they live in a high-risk flood zone as designated by the National Flood Insurance Program. But more than 34 percent have flood insurance, most covered by a renter's or homeowner's policy.

"I'm not sure what it's going to take to move the needle on flood insurance," Vandecar-Burdin said.

At the end of their survey, researchers posed this question: How likely is it that a catastrophic hurricane strikes Hampton Roads in the next decade? The average answer was a 57.8 percent chance.

If that happened, nearly 40 percent of people believe their home would flood.

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