Addressing Affordability and Long-Term Resiliency Through the National Flood Insurance Program

• Date: 01 April 2015

45 ELR 10338 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 4-2015

Addressing

Affordability and

Long-Term

Resiliency Through

the National

Flood Insurance

Program

by Becky Hayat and Robert Moore

Becky Hayat is an Attorney with the Natural Resources

Defense Council’s Water Program, where she works on a

variety of issues including the National Flood Insurance

Program, climate resiliency, stormwater pollution, and urban

water eciency. Robert Moore is a Senior Policy Analyst with

the Natural Resources Defense Council, where he leads the

organization’s Water & Climate Team and works on a range

of issues related to climate preparedness and resilience.

Summary

Given projections of sea-level rise and extreme pre-

cipitation from climate change, the United States will

experience more frequent and more severe ood events

in coming years. National Flood Insurance Program

(NFIP) policies, therefore, should be geared toward

making relocation the easiest and most attractive

option for property owners to pursue. e authors pro-

pose that property owners should agree in advance not

to rebuild following oods that cause substantial dam-

age and, instead, to accept a government buyout of their

property and relocate. In exchange, they would receive

a discount on their federal ood insurance coverage, a

guarantee that their property would be purchased at its

pre-disaster market value, and a faster buyout process.

is model could be implemented as part of the NFIP,

or alternatively by states, local governments, and con-

servation organizations through the purchase of con-

servation easements on ood-prone properties.

I. Introduction

During the 20th century, oods accounted for the larg-

est number of lives lost and the most property damage in

the United States when compared with other natural disas-

ters.1 Given the projections of sea-level rise and increased

extreme precipitation events from climate change, the

country will experience more frequent and more severe

ood events in the coming yea rs. According to a Septem-

ber 2013 report from the A merican Meteorological Soci-

ety, global warming-induced sea-level rise is signicantly

reducing the time between major coastal ood events.2 For

example, a ood of the magnitude resulting from 2012’s

Hurricane (Superstorm) Sandy would have been con-

sidered a once-in-435-years event in 1950, but given the

projected eects of climate change, by 2100, Sandy-scale

ooding could occur every 20 years.3 Urban and riverine

ooding is likewise expected to increase in frequency and

severity as precipitation patterns change.

To make matters worse, the rising human and economic

costs of ooding are exacerbated by the National Flood

Insurance Program (NFIP),4 which provides subsidized

ood insurance rates to property owners living in vulner-

able areas, thereby perpetuating development and redevel-

opment in ood-prone areas. Ultimately, the nation needs

to encourage property owners to move away from ood-

prone areas and areas vulnerable to the future impacts of

sea-level rise. NFIP policies, therefore, should increasingly

be geared toward making relocation to higher and safer

grounds the easiest and most attractive option for property

owners to pursue, both before and after a ood occurs.

is Article proposes dierent ways in which the fed-

eral government, as well as state and local governments and

nongovernmental organizations, can secure agreements

from propert y owners to move away from areas that are

already at high risk of ooding and wi ll be at even greater

risk as the climate warms, sea levels rise, and precipitation

patterns change. Currently, eorts to purchase ood-prone

properties largely occur after a ood has already damaged

a person’s home. Given the nation’s increasing exposure

to ooding, we should invest more in eorts to relocate

1. U.S. G S (USGS), S F   U

S D  20 C: USGS M  C 

F (2000), available at http://ks.water.usgs.gov/pubs/fact-sheets/

fs.024-00.pdf.

2. omas C. Peterson et al., Explaining Extreme Events of 2012 From a Cli-

mate Perspective, 94 A. M S’ B. (Sept. 2013), avail-

able at http://www.ametsoc.org/2012extremeeventsclimate.pdf.

3. Tom Johnson, Mapping Out Areas in New Jersey at Risk of Flooding as Sea Levels

Rise, N.J. S (Oct. 28, 2013), available at http://www.njspotlight.com/

stories/13/10/27/analysis-maps-out-ood-risks-in-nj-as-ocean-levels-rise/.

4. e NFIP is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency

(FEMA). e U.S. Congress established the NFIP in 1968 through the Na-

tional Flood Insurance Act of 1968, Pub. L. No. 90-448, Title XIII, §§1301

et seq., 82 Stat. 476, 576 (1968).

Copyright © 2015 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.