The US flood insurance program makes several recurring payments

When Hurricane Helene made landfall last week, it caused devastating flooding across the southeastern US, including the Shore Acres area of ​​St. Petersburg, Florida. The neighborhood saw waves of 6 meters, which flooded roads and houses.

It was far from the first time.

Shore Acres, where roads are just 2 feet above sea level at their highest point, is in one of the 10 zip codes with the highest number of “repetitive severe loss properties.” It is a designation used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to refer to primarily residential buildings that have received at least four flood insurance payments totaling $20,000 or more, or at least two in total more than the market value of the building.

Related: Modeler KCC puts privately insured losses at $6.4 billion from Helene

Severe Repetitive Loss (SRL) properties are a growing category. NRDC identified about 40,000 of these in 2022, in an estimate that matched most LLC properties with their raw designation data. This was up from about 10,000 LLC properties in 2000, a sharp increase that highlights the burden extreme rainfall and flood risk places on homeowners, landlords and insurers.

“It’s a huge problem. It’s getting worse,” says Anna Weber, senior policy analyst for flood solutions at NRDC. Because the data only covers properties that had flood insurance coverage in the first place, it’s “just the tip of the iceberg,” she says.

Related: Hurricane Helene Shuts Down Bird Crops, Damages Cotton Crops

Only about 4 percent of Americans have flood insurance, though one analysis pegged that number at 2.5 percent or less for many of the inland counties affected by Helene. About 95% of flood insurance policies in the US are issued by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

Using a slightly different methodology, FEMA counted about 46,000 buildings as LLC properties in February, 8 percent of them in the top 10 zip codes. Eight of those zip codes are in Gulf Coast communities where hurricanes are common. But it doesn’t take particularly extreme weather to cause flooding. Rainstorms cause flash flooding in coastal Louisiana. Wildwood in New Jersey is vulnerable to storm surges. Shore Acres is so low that it can flood when it’s sunny.

Created in 1968, the NFIP plays a critical role in insuring homeowners against flood risk. But the program is also designed to incentivize people and communities to reduce this risk. Local governments that adhere to the NFIP are required to adopt floodplain management regulations.

“It’s widely accepted that the climate is getting worse (and) flooding is becoming a bigger problem,” says Mark Browne, faculty chair for the School of Risk Management at the University of St. John. Browne says reducing the risk of flooding is “increasingly important”.

Some communities do just that. New Jersey recently approved an emergency sand pumping project to protect North Wildwood from storm surge, while St. Petersburg upgraded valves that prevent water from flooding Shore Acres Bay.

However, many properties remain unprotected. In the Shore Acres-Zone 33703 zip code, for example, only 14 of 331 LLC properties are listed as mitigated — a designation that means a property has been fortified against flood damage.

In all, protective measures have been taken for just over a third of LLC properties in the top 10 zip codes, according to FEMA data. Nationally, about 24 percent of LLC properties are currently mitigated, although Weber cautions that FEMA may have data gaps that cause it to underestimate the number of mitigated properties.

While federal grants pay for projects that reduce the risk of repeated damage to NFIP-insured buildings, there isn’t enough money available to meet every request, said Sandra Knight, a former FEMA official who oversaw mitigation grants and floodplain management. To stop repeated flooding, governments could also update zoning laws to prevent development in at-risk areas, she said, including taking into account how risk changes with climate.

“Existing infrastructure that’s already there is harder to manage because then you have to mitigate or move,” Knight said. “And people don’t want to do that.”

Methodology: FEMA data define severe repetitive loss properties in two different ways, both based on NFIP payments. This analysis used a definition related to flood mitigation assistance grants that do not reset if a property is mitigated. Properties without a listed postcode were excluded. The dataset was last updated in February.

Top photo: A search and rescue team member inspects a building after Hurricane Helene in Bat Cave, North Carolina, on Oct. 1.

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