by James A. Bacon

I don’t share the apocalyptic alarmism of those who assert that global warming is increasing the frequency and severity of hurricanes. (Read Roger Pielke’s latest essay on the use of a fake data set to buttress the claim.) But I do agree about one thing. Flooding in Hampton Roads is increasing in frequency and severity. And I also agree that it makes no sense for federal flood insurance to repeatedly reimburse property owners for damage to flood-prone housing if they refuse (or cannot afford) to invest in risk mitigation.

The Virginia Mercury highlights a new tool created by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which reveals that owners of 7,000 Virginia properties made repeated claims for flood damage over 10 years. Of those, only 554 mitigated their flood risk by filling their basements, raising their houses, or replacing their houses with structures better able to withstand flooding. Reports the Mercury:

In Virginia, three-quarters of the repetitive loss properties are in Hampton Roads. Of those, 841 are severe repetitive loss properties, which have reported four or more claims of more than $5,000. The vast majority — 689 — have not been mitigated against future flooding. They accounted for 1% of the Virginia claims but 21% of the payments.

Advocacy of flood-insurance reform represents a rare but happy conjunction of fiscal conservatism and environmentalism.

“One of the most frustrating things about the flood rebuild model that we’re following in the United States is that there is currently no requirement for property owners to mitigate their property to reduce the likelihood of repeat flood damage,” Mary-Carson Stiff, executive director of Wetlands Watch told the Mercury. 

Hampton Roads, where sea-level rise is compounded by subsidence due to the action of tectonic plates and the drawdown of aquifers, is the most vulnerable. Virginia Beach had 128 repetitive loss properties, Norfolk 125, Hampton 110, and Poquoson 50.

There is only so much that government authorities can accomplish through zoning restrictions, building codes, storm-water drainage projects, and the hardening of infrastructure. Over the long run, creating resilient communities requires giving property owners the incentive to do the right thing — or at least stop subsidizing them from doing the wrong thing. The most powerful incentive of all is making property owners bear the risk of building and rebuilding in flood-prone areas.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which administers the flood insurance program, has made some moves to reduce the insanity of subsidizing property owners who build in flood-prone areas. That’s a start, although the NRDC says more needs to be done.

Among other problems the NRDC contends that federal flood-plain maps are out of date — as vividly illustrated recently by the massive storm destruction in Asheville, N.C., where the flooding from Hurricane Helene reached far beyond 100-year flood plain boundaries. Twenty-one percent of SLRPs (Severe Repetitive Loss Properties) are located outside of FEMA-designated flood zones. Unlike many claims made by global warmists based upon dubious data and dubious climate-change models, flooding data is about as good as it gets. There should be no controversy here.

Another idea is to require sellers to disclose a property’s flood history. Virginia is not among the handful of states that require such information to be disclosed, Anna Weber, senior policy analyst for environmental health at the NRDC, told the Mercury.

“Virginia is effectively a buyer-beware state,” Weber said. “There’s very little that you are guaranteed a right to in terms of that information. So, when we talk about flood disclosure, we think it’s important that people have a right to know not just what it says about your home on a FEMA flood insurance map, but what specifically has happened in the past at that property. Has it flooded before? Have there been flood insurance claims? How much did those claims cost? How many times has the home flooded?”

At the very least, FEMA should make that data readily available.

Republished with permission from Bacon’s Rebellion.