Thousands of Florida homes flood repeatedly. Little has been done to reduce the risks
Between “rain bombs” and drenching from no-name storms, hundreds of homes in
Newly released data from the
And those
“These are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to repeatedly flooded properties in the US,” said
The
There are about 45,000 of these properties in the
But Floridians don’t get to know where, exactly, these homes are, due to federal and state laws that block renters or home buyers from learning about past flooding on private properties. Two new bills filed this year could address it, but previous attempts to solve the problem in
Weber said that some of the
Because the
According to the NRDC analysis of FEMA’s data, the vast majority of the state’s problem properties remain highly vulnerable. Of the 3,100, only a hundred have been fixed in the last few decades, either by elevating the house high enough that it doesn’t flood, or buying the property, razing the house and turning the empty lot into a grassy lot that absorbs water.
That’s what
But the rest of those 3,000 or so properties remain unfixed. About half were uninsured, as of 2022. The other half pay annual flood insurance premiums, but because the properties are classified as repetitive loss, they’re charged far higher annual prices than their neighbors.
“The pace at which we are adding properties to the severe repetitive loss list far outstrips the pace at which we are mitigating them,” Weber said. “If we’re failing to keep up with mitigating these most vulnerable properties, that’s not a good sign for all the other properties with flood risk around the country.”
Flood history is a secret in
In
The two counties with the highest count were
But their locations are a secret, including, sometimes, to the people who own them.
That’s because
That’s helpful to sellers looking to offload a flood-prone house, but less so for home buyers hoping to avoid purchasing a home that moonlights as a swimming pool.
Weber said that FEMA’s policy is to only share past flood history with a property owner that holds an active flood insurance policy on a property, so prospective buyers may only know the details of their property’s flood history after they’ve closed the deal.
“We’ve heard anecdotally that this happens with distressing frequently,” she said. “There’s really no way for a home buyer to just Google the address of a property and see what its flood insurance claim history is.”
Some states, like
READ MORE: Has your house or apartment flooded before? In
But
That was exactly what happened with a
That’s why some advocates, like NRDC, are pushing for mandatory flood disclosure at the national level. The Biden administration is considering it, but it could be years before anything is enacted.
Two new bills were introduced in
Stewart’s bill would require landlords to inform tenants if they’re in a flood zone, and Bradley’s bill would require home sellers to disclose past flooding, as well as flood insurance claims, on their property to potential buyers.
©2024 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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