The flood plans have been updated recently, and millions of people who bought houses outside the floodplain are suddenly in one and basically unable to sell their house. I work in municipal...
The flood plans have been updated recently, and millions of people who bought houses outside the floodplain are suddenly in one and basically unable to sell their house.
I work in municipal development and the preliminary 2022 floodplain update puts entire neighborhoods built in the last 10 years into the floodplain.
The biggest thing is we went WAY too long not updating the floodplains because it hurt land values too much. As a result the area I'm in had 8 "100 year" floods in under 20 years.
More than 2.4 million Texans live in areas that have a 1% chance of flooding each year, known as the 100-year floodplain, the analysis found. Another 3.5 million people live in areas with a 0.2% chance of flooding each year, known as the 500-year floodplain.
One-fifth of the state’s land — roughly 56,000 square miles — now fall within the 100-year floodplain, TWDB staff said in a presentation this week.
It will likely cost Texas tens of billions of dollars to protect people and property from floods. The first projects proposed in the plan add up to $38 billion, including the massive coastal barrier proposal with its “Ike Dike,” a huge gate system proposed for the mouth of Galveston Bay.
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Texas used existing flood data to create the maps that served as a baseline that regions could add to with their own flood hazard maps — if any existed — and supplement with knowledge from local water managers. In regions with very little data, gaps were filled with data from a contracted flood risk modeling data company called Fathom.
Sixty-three of Texas’ 254 counties had no existing flood hazard information prior to the planning effort, according to the TWDB.
I expect it would be bad for home owners’ insurance rates in a flood zone and good for home owners not in a flood zone. Although, some insurance companies might have had better information than...
I expect it would be bad for home owners’ insurance rates in a flood zone and good for home owners not in a flood zone. Although, some insurance companies might have had better information than the official maps and set prices accordingly.
From what I understand, Florida and California just redid some of their maps and insurance companies are leaving the states because so many homes are now in danger zones. This is making insurance...
From what I understand, Florida and California just redid some of their maps and insurance companies are leaving the states because so many homes are now in danger zones. This is making insurance with companies that are in the state way more expensive in general. I guess it could still negatively impact those in non-flood zones.
In California at least, it's complicated because insurance is heavily regulated and threatening to leave is how insurance companies bargain with the regulator. I haven't paid attention to how...
In California at least, it's complicated because insurance is heavily regulated and threatening to leave is how insurance companies bargain with the regulator. I haven't paid attention to how that's going, but here's a news story about it:
That is only one of the pressures facing Lara in what one advocate described as a “game of chicken” between the insurance companies and Lara. The industry wants to rewrite rules guiding how to set its fees and to be able change how it passes on the cost of its risk to consumers. It is all coming to a head as climate change ramps up natural disasters from Vermont to California — and insurance companies pull out of big coastal states such as Florida.
I guess you could think of this as a form of collective bargaining.
The flood plans have been updated recently, and millions of people who bought houses outside the floodplain are suddenly in one and basically unable to sell their house.
I work in municipal development and the preliminary 2022 floodplain update puts entire neighborhoods built in the last 10 years into the floodplain.
The biggest thing is we went WAY too long not updating the floodplains because it hurt land values too much. As a result the area I'm in had 8 "100 year" floods in under 20 years.
From the article:
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That can't be good for the homeowners insurance market in Texas!
I expect it would be bad for home owners’ insurance rates in a flood zone and good for home owners not in a flood zone. Although, some insurance companies might have had better information than the official maps and set prices accordingly.
From what I understand, Florida and California just redid some of their maps and insurance companies are leaving the states because so many homes are now in danger zones. This is making insurance with companies that are in the state way more expensive in general. I guess it could still negatively impact those in non-flood zones.
In California at least, it's complicated because insurance is heavily regulated and threatening to leave is how insurance companies bargain with the regulator. I haven't paid attention to how that's going, but here's a news story about it:
It's a make-or-break moment for California's insurance commissioner (SF Chronicle)
I guess you could think of this as a form of collective bargaining.