Millions of homeowners face flood risks without realizing it, and climate change is making it worse
Source: Washington Post
When Hurricane Harvey struck Southeast Texas in 2017, it provided a real-life stress test of the plans for flood risk in a highly vulnerable region. Southeast Texas failed that test. More than half of the homes engulfed by floodwaters were located outside city- and federally designated 100-year floodplains.
That storm led to a whole-scale rethinking of zoning regulations in the Houston area, and it highlighted the gaping flaws in the country’s system of analyzing and communicating flood risks to property owners and prospective buyers.
Now, an exhaustive report out Monday shows that nationally, there are at least 6 million households that are unaware they’re living in homes that have a 1 percent chance of flooding in each year — putting them within a “100-year” flood zone. This is nearly 70 percent more homes at substantial risk of flooding than are within the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Special Flood Hazard Areas, a designation that determines eligibility for the National Flood Insurance Program.
This count is set to grow substantially in coming decades due to the effects of climate change, including sea level rise, which will make hurricane storm surges more damaging, as well as precipitation extremes.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/06/29/flood-risk-climate-change/
This report is not very surprising. Florida is going to pay dearly for electing Republicans who have ignored science for the past several decades.
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