Houston Business Journal
- This data, which hasn’t been refreshed in years, is intended to identify thousands of people and businesses that are now in flood-prone areas that previously were considered safe. This data also is used to determine flood insurance rates in neighborhoods across the city.
- The Federal Emergency Management Agency began working in collaboration with Harris County shortly after Hurricane Harvey in 2017 to overhaul the region’s floodplain maps. The maps were originally scheduled for release in mid-2022, but FEMA pushed back its schedule for nearly two years. The agency now suggests the maps will be available sometime in 2024, according to a statement given to the Houston Chronicle in 2023.
- The new maps are estimated to include updated rainfall estimates from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This would redefine where existing 100-year and 500-year floodplains lie.
- “Now, the 100-year storm we’re using for the new floodplain map, I think, is generally about 18 to 19 inches for 24 hours, that’s up from 13 inches in 24 hours, which is our current floodplain map. I think these maps will be, frankly, out of date as soon as they come out environmental lawyer, planner and professor at Rice University Jim Blackburn told the Houston Business Journal last year.
- The maps will be so out of date, in fact, that nonprofits and other organizations have done their own analyses of rainfall data and found that millions of Americans are more at risk than previously thought.
- The First Street Foundation, a nonprofit climate data analysis organization, looked at rainfall data from NOAA’s weather stations across the country.Their analysis, released in 2023, found that the greater Houston region will experience a 100-year storm — at least 15-19 inches of rain per 24 hours — every 20 years (5% chance annually) at best. But it could be as often as every five years in some areas (20% chance annually).
- If someone owns property in what FEMA calls a “special flooding zone,” i.e. a 100-year floodplain, they may be required to have flood insurance on their home or business by their
- mortgage lender. But often, real estate agents and lenders don’t inform buyers of this requirement until the purchase is already made.
- FEMA offers flood insurance underwritten by the federal government through the National Flood Insurance Program, but coverage maxes out at $250,000 for a residential structure and $500,000 for a commercial one. Additionally, NFIP is not broadly available to every U.S. homeowner.
- For that reason, many homeowners with more expensive homes must get private insurance with higher coverage limits. But private insurers are free to deny coverage to those the most at risk, and reports of this happening are already appearing in Houston.
- In 2023, FEMA finalized its implementation of a new NFIP rate calculation, Risk Rating 2.0.
- Basically, it means that “most” policies can’t increase by more than 18% per year.
