EDITORIAL: Seek permanent deal on flood insurance

Sept. 24--Not for the first time, the U.S. Congress is showing itself ill-equipped to deal with the complex and financially challenging issues around flooding and the National Flood Insurance Program.

The latest deadline for action is Nov. 1, when the NFIP law expires. That would mean that coverage continues for policyholders, but new policies could not be written in the vast coastal areas of the United States.

Obviously, Louisiana is ground zero for this problem.

As state Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon points out annually as he travels the state before each hurricane season, NFIP coverage is cheap, and Louisiana has vastly benefited from the program.

In fact, it was created after Hurricane Betsy hit Louisiana and New Orleans hard in 1965. Private insurers fled the flood insurance market, forcing a federal role.

Still, Donelon told the Press Club of Baton Rouge, it remains a struggle to get homeowners and businesses to sign up for NFIP -- until, of course, there's a flood. But over time, policy numbers tend to drop.

Hurricanes like Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike have resulted in immense payouts to businesses and homeowners over the years. Florence is the latest.

The unnamed storm that poured devastation during the Louisiana floods of 2016 also cost the program, as did the extensive flooding of Houston by Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

If Congress does not reauthorize NFIP, what then? To say, as some idealistic free-market conservatives argue, that NFIP policies should be priced exactly to meet the cost to the general taxpayer would result in an insurance-mandated economic depression in coastal America.

We applaud Louisiana's delegation in Congress and community leaders like Greater New Orleans Inc., a key organizer of business groups on this issue, for pushing a more balanced and comprehensive approach to what is a difficult financial problem. It is vital to coastal communities to seek a compromise. As Donelon points out, Sandy in 2012 reminded the northeastern states, and their legislators, that they have a strong interest in getting this issue right.

Further, we applaud local governments -- East Baton Rouge Parish is one -- pushing for comprehensive water management planning that will likely suggest ways in which NFIP flood maps can be altered to more realistically assess flood risk of specific properties.

By Nov. 1, if the political currents allow, there might be another short-term extension of NFIP, but that probably would not resolve the longstanding concerns of coastal communities and fiscally conservative legislators.

After the midterm elections in November, we hope that Congress will aim for a long-term reauthorization of NFIP on the basis of reasonable compromise over these issues.

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