Tying Flood Insurance to Flood Risk for Low-Lying Structures in the Floodplain.

摘要

Floods take a heavy toll on society, costing lives, damaging buildings and property, disrupting livelihoods, and sometimes necessitating federal disaster relief, which has risen to record levels in recent years. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was created in 1968 to reduce the flood risk to individuals and their reliance on federal disaster relief by making federal flood insurance available to residents and businesses if their community adopted floodplain management ordinances and minimum standards for new construction in floodprone areas. Insurance rates for structures built after a floodplain map was adopted by the community were intended to reflect the actual risk of flooding (i.e., risk-based rates), taking into account the likelihood of inundation, the elevation of the structure, and the relationship of inundation to damage to the structure. Charging higher premiums for structures expected to suffer greater flood damage would make people aware of their flood risk and would transfer the cost of losses from taxpayers to property owners.