The problem: Thousands of US homes have so much flood risk that flood protection would either cost an unreasonable amount or feasible solutions don’t exist. Some of these homes were knowingly built in risky locations, but builders and local governments developed anyway. Other homes appeared to be in safe locations based on outdated maps from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) but really were not.
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Go deeper: FEMA’s maps are often outdated, imprecise, and incomplete. Newer maps produced by the non-profit organization First Street Foundation show true flood risk for every property in America. Unlike FEMA’s maps, these maps factor in flooding from rainfall, the effects of adaptation measures, and expected changes in sea level and storm intensity.
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Yes, and: Homes built in at-risk locations but listed outside FEMA’s flood maps make up the largest group of properties that need buyouts.
Taxpayers end up stuck with the bill for these high-risk homes. The tax dollars of citizens across the US cover repeated payouts from the National Flood Insurance Program (NIFP), and local residents fund the emergency services needed to rescue people from high-risk homes during flood events. Also, residents in high-risk homes are stuck flooding again and again — a fate that nobody wants to endure year after year.
The solution: Aside from the costly and drastic process of home elevation, buyouts are the clear fix for these high-risk cases. Buyouts provide homeowners in flood-prone areas with a voluntary opportunity to sell to the local government at fair market value.
Yes, but: Buyouts today suffer from three challenging but surmountable problems:
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They are slow and take more than 5 years on average to complete.
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They are inflexible, funded by the federal government only in very specific circumstances, and based on outdated federal maps.
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They are reactive, almost always coming after a disaster, not before one.
The big picture: Counties can set up their own programs that fund buyouts and avoid the usual problems.
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They can bypass slow federal government programs, and buy flood-prone homes in as little as six months, rather than ~4.5 years.
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They can buy at will, regardless of what the federal maps say.
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They can work ahead of time, by identifying places with outsized risk and addressing it without waiting for a storm to hit.
Take action: Flood-prone residents could ask their county for personal buyouts, but they might get rejected. Local governments often use funding as an excuse to sidestep responsibility and pass on buyout programs. But there are creative ways for counties to secure funding for these valuable programs.
Any of these three funding sources can be leveraged to help counties develop their own buyout programs that provide high-risk residents with a solution while avoiding the challenges with federal government programs.
We are Flood Defenders
A non-profit amplifying the power of our members' voices to demand and receive better flood protection
