EDITORIAL: Wednesday Changes must be made to flood insurance program
So it is worth noting that the nation's flood insurance program was described in
And that
Keys to the revamp are to spur more private flood insurance coverage and to deter repeated federal payouts for flood damage.
The program is basically bankrupt, meaning that
One home in
And
Reformers include many conservatives who see the government bailouts -- and lots of environmentalists who think the flood insurance program is an enabler for construction in flood-prone areas.
If the government is going to interfere in the flood insurance market, then that means taxpayers are subsidizing a few homeowners in flood-prone locations.
The government can't force homeowners in flood-prone areas to buy flood insurance, though it would seem that mortgage companies could, just as car owners are required to have insurance.
There also is evidence that the government's flood insurance is badly designed.
Rather than using detailed flooding maps to assess the risks of individual homes, the program uses communitywide averages that overcharge half the risks and undercharge half the risks. In addition, the flood insurance program was not designed for these catastrophic events that are breaking historic patterns.
In short, past history has become a poor predictor of the damages of natural disasters.
TURBOCHARGED STORMS
A warmer ocean doesn't produce hurricanes, a warmer ocean produces more extreme ones.
Though the hurricane season ends
This new normal of extreme weather events was underscored by a National Climate Assessment produced by 13 federal agencies and approved by the
The last 115 years have been the warmest in the history of modern civilization.
Much of this is due to human activity, specifically the emission of greenhouse gases produced by fossil fuels.
These are the sort of extremes that are expected on a warming planet when extreme weather events become more commonplace.
A nonpartisan federal watchdog agency reported that climate change has already cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year and the bills will only increase in the future.
The federal government has spent more than
The government hasn't been planning for these losses, apparently considering them to be rare and high risk.
The report looked at regional impacts.
The Midwest will be affected by lower crop yields.
The West will have increased drought, wildfires and heat waves.
SOLUTIONS
A businesslike risk management approach will seek to mitigate the impact of these extreme weather events, to remove taxpayer support for repetitive flooding risks and to plan more wisely for sea level rise and storm surges.
We need to stop filling in wetlands near the coast and use natural defenses like dunes and wetlands as protections against hurricanes.
"Strategic retreat" from coastal areas may affect a few households or entire communities
For instance, new bridges may need to be built higher and storm water systems will need increased capacity.
A review of the cities at most risk to major coastal flooding and sea level rise begins with
As Hurricane Irma revealed,
Cities like
If Irma had hit
It's the new climate normal.
___
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