Future of flood insurance questioned
National program could see changes in premiums and coverage
As Hurricane Florence barreled Thursday into the Carolinas with storm surges predicted at up to 13 feet, some 600 miles to the northeast in Connecticut a half-dozen Norwalk property owners were wrapping up claims for flood damage after a June deluge that had inundated basements.
If still considered a necessity in many coastal cities and towns, fewer Connecticut residents are getting coverage today through the National Flood Insurance Program — with the future of the program still an open debate in Con- gress as it wrestles with how to deal with storms of catastrophic magnitude like Florence.
As of July, about 37,750 Connecticut property owners had secured coverage under the National Flood Insurance Program, as tracked by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, paying premiums of $52.4 million to protect $9.6 billion in real estate.
Sold through privatesector insurance agents and administered by more than 60 insurance carriers, the NFIP has represented an important financial levee for the state — over the past three decades through this past July, Connecticut property owners had received $503 million under the NFIP claims across more than 27,400 losses, averaging about $18,300 per claim.
Congress has authorized monthly extensions of NFIP this year as debate proceeds on a proposed 21st Century Flood Reform Act that would limit premium increases, but among other changes also restrict coverage for properties that have proven susceptible to repeat flooding.
Post-Sandy
Milford led all municipalities with 3,150 claims for $75 million in recompense over those 30 years, with the city tops statewide today with more than 2,900 NFIP policies in force covering $694 million in property, with Stamford No. 2 at 2,600 policies on $662 million in real estate. Fairfield and Norwalk were the only two other Connecticut municipalities with in excess of 2,000 policies in effect, protecting properties valued at $633 million and $583 million, respectively.
In a number of neighborhoods along Long Island Sound, homes have been raised or rebuilt on stilts and embankments to lift them above historic flood stages.
“In the 22,000 communities that participate in the program, any new construction is at the minimum federal standard or higher in the high-risk flood area, which results in
a little under $2 billion of avoided losses every year,” said David Maurstad, FEMA’s chief executive leading NFIP, in an August podcast reviewing the status of the program. “Communities and individuals ... can then take actions to minimize their risk and become more resilient if a disaster were to strike for their particular area.”
In the year after the October 2012 storm Sandy, Connecticut saw a 6 percent increase in flood insurance policies, second highest in the nation after New York’s 15 percent spike in coverage. But policy counts dropped over the following three years through the fall of 2016, with FEMA expected to publish 2017 policy data next February.
Sandy would become the second most costly storm for flood claims over the past three decades, at $8.75 billion slightly ahead of Hurricane Harvey a year ago; while far behind the $16.3 billion in claims generated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
John Weiss, co-owner of the furniture and design chain Lillian August, said flooding has been a persistent issue at the company’s South Norwalk store the company is in the process of closing for unrelated reasons, including in October 2012 Sandy when Connecticut suffered widespread flooding.
“They call it Water Street for a reason,” Weiss told Hearst Connecticut Media. “I remember (going) down there and I thought, ‘OK, we’re all right’ — and then I saw a boat coming down Elizabeth Street and I thought, ‘OK, that’s not good.’”