<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">By the end of the century, around </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/housing-hurricanes-floods-weather-building-2018-10"><span style="font-weight: 400;">$912 billion</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> worth of residential property, or 2.4 million homes will be impacted by climate change. Coastal communities will ultimately be displaced, as flooding that doesn’t recede after storms forces huge coastal populations to move inland</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">. In the meantime, however, people keep building and rebuilding in floodplains and on fragile coastlines. A year after Hurricane Harvey, </span><a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Even-after-Harvey-Houston-keeps-adding-new-homes-13285865.php"><span style="font-weight: 400;">one in five new homes in Houston</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is being built in a floodplain. Even when the future is clear, developers continue to push costly and unsustainable growth in high-risk areas. </span></p><p><div data-conversation-spotlight=""></div></p><p><a href="https://www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The National Flood Insurance Program</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> (NFIP) guarantees government payouts in special flood-hazard areas, leading property owners to rebuild a new home on the same vulnerable site multiple times, knowing they’ll always get bailed out. Some are calling for change, as the program is currently more than $25 billion in debt (in figures that predate the 2018 hurricane season). More than 30,000 properties that are insured under the program are considered “</span><a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2018-07-31/national-flood-insurance-program-encourages-risky-behavior-at-taxpayer-expense"><span style="font-weight: 400;">severe repetitive loss properties</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">,” which means taxpayers have paid numerous times to rebuild the same house.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Any time you see a major flood or devastating event, a lot of times you may see politicians come in and say, 'We're going to rebuild,'" says Chris Hackett, the senior director of personal lines policy at the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">"That may be very popular at the time, but I think it's important to maybe take a moment and think about, is it really the best use of resources to rebuild in this exact location after this disaster struck?" </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now that may change. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The program, which serves more than five million policyholders across the country, is set to expire at the end of November 2018 if lawmakers don’t reauthorize it. </span><a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/412400-with-the-nfip-underwater-expand-private-sectors-role"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Critics of the program say</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> it doesn’t do enough to discourage building in flood zones or to mitigate risk by requiring building standards that would make </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">buildings more able to withstand severe weather and floods. Others say that privatization is the solution. Private insurance companies would be able to do what the government does not: Discourage building in high-risk areas by charging rates that are in proportion to the risks. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However, eliminating the program is politically risky and thus unlikely, with key recipients living in the Carolinas, Florida, Texas, and Alabama. FEMA officials have said that its ongoing mission is to expand this program.</span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So what’s to be done? </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Property owners who hope to withstand the next big storm could invest in hazard mitigation. According to a</span><a href="https://www.nibs.org/page/mitigationsaves"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">study</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">by the National Institute of Building Sciences, every $1 put toward hazard mitigation saves $6 in future disaster costs. After Hurricane Michael raked over Mexico Beach, Florida, just one house was left standing: Attorney </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Russell King built a five-bedroom beach house designed to withstand “the Big One,” and it did. The house exceeded Florida’s building code, with 40-foot pilings buried deep in the ground, </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">reinforced by steel cables and rebar, breakaway walls, and additional concrete bolstering the corners of the house.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I believe the planet's getting warmer and the storms are getting stronger," </span><a href="https://theweek.com/articles/802619/house-that-withstood-hurricane-michael"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said King</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, who has declined to share what the extra reinforcement measures cost. "We didn't used to have storms like this. So people who live on the coast have to be ready for it."</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mexico Beach Mayor Al Cathey said the city will be rebuilt, but to a higher standard than before Michael came ashore. “We’re going to lose some of the quaintness that we had, in the old cottage-style houses,” </span><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-buildings-that-survived-michael-hold-the-key-to-adaptation/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sa-editorial-social&utm_content&utm_term=sustainability_news_"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cathey said</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “But we’ll be newer and improved.”</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In other words, we will continue to pay for the privilege of living on the beach — whether we live there or not.</span></p>
Keep reading...
Show less