Gregory Scruggs -
The flood waters have not yet entirely receded from Houston and the Gulf Coast, but Texas Governor Greg Abbott is already talking about damage on the order of $180 billion, which would make Hurricane Harvey the most expensive storm in US history.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Irma is rolling into South Florida, threatening massive damage to another heavily populated region.
As the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the US begins to pick up the pieces from the wreckage and another region braces for damages, some serious policy changes are needed at federal, state and city level in every municipality that could be stung by hurricanes like Harvey and Irma.
Here are three ways that sprawling coastal communities can either build back better or work to prevent future storm devastation.
Fix the National Flood Insurance Programme to remove the perverse incentive to build in flood-prone areas.
Beleaguered homeowners in Texas have already filed 73,000 claims to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which administers the National Flood Insurance Program. The federal government-backed programme was started in 1968.
Today it underwrites some five million policies annually, including over 425,000 in the area affected by Harvey.
One in four offer subsidised rates that don’t reflect the true cost of providing flood insurance.
As Congress returns for its fall session, lawmakers are already grappling with the need to approve emergency funds to keep the $7.5 billion programme from going bankrupt before Harvey claims can be fully paid out — a challenge that will only be greater once thousands of Irma-related claims come from Florida.
In theory, the flood insurance programme was designed to keep homeowners away from flood-prone areas by enacting strict rules on property within 100-year floodplains.
In practice, antiquated flood maps, which don’t account for the increased frequency of severe storms and flooding caused by climate change and over-development of waterfront areas, and an unwillingness to enforce the rules, have wound up perversely subsidising flood insurance in risky locations.
At the same time, four-fifths of homes damaged by Harvey didn’t have flood insurance because they were outside the 100-year flood zone.
While Congress should honour the insurance claims pouring in from Harvey and those likely to arise from Irma, the programme must be reformed to use updated flood maps that err on the side of caution — climate change is only going to make these extreme weather events more intense.
Buy out homeowners in vulnerable areas and manage their retreat.
Retreat is a dirty word in the US It shouldn’t be. The federal government has spent $750 million to buy out some 1,500 homeowners in the New York City metropolitan area in the wake of 2011’s Hurricane Irene and 2012’s Superstorm Sandy.
Severely damaged Staten Island neighbourhoods like Oakwood Beach are slowly being reclaimed by Mother Nature as natural wetlands take over former single-family plots. When the next storm hits New York, there will be fewer risks to human life and less property damage. Rescuers and first responders won’t have to come. There will be very little reconstruction and no flood insurance claims.
How did the government convince homeowners to give up their slice of the American Dream — It paid up to 15 per cent over the house’s pre-storm value.
For many who feared future flooding, it was too good of an offer to turn down.
The upfront cost may be steep, but the long-term savings could finally make the National Flood Insurance Program solvent.
Rebuild smarter with green infrastructure
Houston and its surrounding suburbs have resisted any effort to plan its growth in an efficient or ecologically sensitive manner. The sprawling city is unlikely to change overnight as a result of Harvey, but as rebuilding takes place, the city and its neighbours will finally have to adopt rules that shape the built environment.
— Reuters
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