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Adapting U.S. Flood Insurance Policy To Climate Change
(istockphoto.com) In the wake of historic flooding in the Lower Mississippi River, the House Financial Services Committee approved a bill on Friday that would raise insurance rates from the National...
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The Ins and Outs of the NFIP
If you want to get up to speed on the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), it’s hard to do better than RFF’s Carolyn Kousky. You can watch her giving CSPAN viewers the rundown on it here. RFF...
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RFF Policy Commentary: How Generous Is Post-flood Disaster Aid?
Do people have unreasonable expectations about federal aid when disaster strikes? In the latest RFF Policy Commentary, RFF experts Carolyn Kousky and Leonard Shabman look at federal aid after flood...
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NFIP Reform Passes
After years of discussion, Congress finally passed some important reform measures for the troubled National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The NFIP is a federal program that makes flood insurance...
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Sandy’s Unaccounted-for Costs
Image: The Birkes / Flickr Hurricane Sandy and the system it is merging with are predicted to cause substantial damage across the mid-Atlantic. Damages from climate-related disasters, like this one,...
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Climate-Ready Coastal Development? A Model from Pelican Bay, Florida
Americans love the coast. We live there. We vacation there. Coastal areas generate substantial economic activity. But building on the coast is risky—storms and sea level rise threaten coastal...
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How Much Do Weather-related Disasters Cost?
Climate scientists predict many weather-related extreme events may be changing in frequency or intensity as the climate warms, or their location, timing, and duration may be changing. The public also...
View ArticleMaking Flood Insurance Affordable
The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) found itself floundering in debt after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, sparking a legislative push to overhaul it. The result was a risk-based...
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The Sandy Supplemental by the Numbers
Figure 1. Sandy Supplemental Compared with 2012 Agency OutlaysSource: Fiscal Year 2014 Historical Tables Budget of the US Office of Management and Budget. The amount of federal spending on disaster aid...
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Flood Insurance Claims: A Fat Tail Getting Fatter
Floods remain some of the worst disasters around the world. They cause more property damage and insured losses than many other types of events. In the US, floods are primarily insured through the...
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Should Coastal Communities Consider Transfers of Development Rights?
photo: clarkmaxwell/flickr My colleague, Carolyn Kousky, recently wrote a post about “managed retreat” from the riskiest areas along our nation’s coastline—areas facing sea-level rise, as well as...
View ArticleAdaptation and Liability
A class-action lawsuit (complaint here) by Farmers insurance against Chicago and other Illinois cities has gotten some attention (e.g., here, here, and here) because of its connection with climate...
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A Look at How the NFIP Differs from a Private Insurance Company
Flood insurance in the United States is offered through the federal National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The 2005 hurricane season sent the program massively into debt to the US Treasury. As the...
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Land Conservation and Sea Level Rise—Florida Edition
Image: Ebyabe, Wikimedia Commons If you’re a fan of crime fiction with a dash of humor, you might have read some of Carl Hiaasen’s books—Skinny Dip, Nature Girl, Paradise Screwed, to name three. If so,...
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