![]() “All of this, I believe, is having a significant impact on getting people to better appreciate their flood risk not just around the nation but in their neighborhoods, and that’s a good thing,” David Maurstad, a senior FEMA official in charge of the flood insurance program, said in an interview Tuesday. The new rates started taking effect in 2021 - drawing protests from some lawmakers - and are part of a larger effort by FEMA to alert the public about the growing threat of climate change. The restructuring, called Risk Rating 2.0, will take more than a decade to complete as rate increases are phased in each year until every policyholder is paying a premium that reflects the full flood risk of their home or business. The FEMA price hikes are a result of the agency’s decision in the 2010s to restructure the NFIP to make each premium reflect more accurately each property’s flood risk and to eliminate some discounts. Flood insurance is sold separately from homeowners’ coverage, and FEMA sells 90 percent of the nation’s flood policies through its NFIP. ![]() ![]() The increases will be particularly steep across coastal Florida and coastal Louisiana, where people also are facing huge increases in the premiums they pay for homeowners’ insurance. The average premium in the county on Florida’s southwestern coast is currently $1,053.Īverage premiums will more than double in 800 of 3,000 counties, according to an E&E News analysis of the FEMA data. In Collier County, Fla., which was ground zero for Hurricane Ian, homeowners will pay an average of nearly $4,000 for flood insurance from FEMA. But she thinks the agency "is undercounting what the on-the-ground impacts actually will be.In Plaquemines Parish on the Louisiana coast, the average flood insurance premium is projected to increase by 545 percent - to $5,431 from $842, FEMA data shows. Tennyson acknowledges that the indebted flood insurance program needs to be updated. Lisa Tennyson, the county's legislative affairs director, says it may price homes out of reach for middle-income workers, including "teachers, nurses, firefighters, government workers, utility workers. Still, people buying new homes may now face bills 10 times higher than before. It would be higher, but Congress has capped annual increases for each homeowner at 18%. In Monroe County - the Florida Keys - FEMA says more than 90% of homeowners will see their annual flood insurance premiums go up, sometimes by thousands of dollars a year. Some fear middle-income workers will be priced out of homeownership The high cost of housing has long been a major problem in the Florida Keys, and the couple purchased the home through the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity.Īmy Tripp and her husband renovated the kitchen in their new home, which had been damaged in Hurricane Irma. "It was totally gutted and has a new roof." ![]() On Big Pine Key, after years of looking for a house she could afford, Amy Tripp and her husband were finally able to buy a home recently. Almost all homeowners are required to carry flood insurance if they have a mortgage. There may be few places affected more by the new risk rating system than the Florida Keys, where the average elevation on the chain of islands off Florida's peninsula is just over 3 feet above sea level. The Federal Emergency Management Agency says its new rates better reflect flood risk in a warming climate. The cost of federal flood insurance is rising for millions of homeowners, threatening to make homes in coastal areas unaffordable for many. ![]() Her rate will still go up more slowly over time. When buying her new home in Big Pine Key, Fla., Amy Tripp closed early, just before federal flood insurance rates rose by thousands of dollars. ![]()
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