Latest Flood Headlines
All the headlines from our Flood Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Feds Approve $26.3M to Buy Out Flood-Prone Homes in N.J.
Feb 11 2014 // The federal government has awarded New Jersey $26.3 million to enable it to buy 89 homes in flood-prone sections of Woodbridge. The state is in the process of buying homes from willing sellers affected by Superstorm Sandy...
Lawyers to Appeal Verdict in Flooding Lawsuit Against Louisiana Parish
Feb 11 2014 // Attorneys who brought a class-action lawsuit against Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish say they will appeal a 9-3 jury verdict that found the parish was negligent in its emergency response planning but that the negligence...
Insured Property Losses for Central Texas Halloween Floods Top $30M
Feb 11 2014 // Final figures released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) show that insured losses to residential and commercial property from flood waters which swamped Central Texas on Halloween night 2013 totaled...
U.K. Towns Face More Floods as Insurer Losses Estimated at $1.6 Billion
Feb 11 2014 // Waterlogged towns on the River Thames west of London braced for more floods as rains persisted across southern England and Deloitte LLP said the storms may cost insurers £1 billion ($1.6 billion) by April. The Environment...
Private Flood Insurance Agency Now Selling in 15 States
Feb 10 2014 // A Florida agency selling private flood insurance said it is now selling the coverage in 15 states and making it available to commercial risks and apartment buildings. According to Evan Hecht, CEO of The Flood Insurance...
Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish Found Negligent in Hurricane Katrina Flood Case
Feb 10 2014 // A jury has found Jefferson Parish government negligent in the way it drafted and enacted a plan that evacuated drainage pump operators on the eve of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall in Louisiana but ruled the parish was...
Flood Insurance Premium Hikes from New Maps Could Be Delayed Until 2015
Feb 10 2014 // Some flood insurance premiums required under a 2012 law now won’t be raised until the fall of 2015 at the earliest. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said the $1 trillion bipartisan funding bill passed...
Severe Weather Cuts Rail Links to Southwest England
Feb 10 2014 // Severe flooding and landslips cut off rail links to large parts of southwest England for more than 24 hours at the weekend as the government came under pressure for its handling of storms battering Britain. Some areas have...
How to Encourage Private Sector Flood Insurance
Feb 10 2014 // New technologies and a better understanding of flood risk may have increased private insurers’ interest in providing flood insurance but real obstacles remain to the private sector getting involved. The obstacles...
Flooded N.Y. Homeowners Regret Dropping Insurance
Feb 10 2014 // Some western New York residents whose homes were damaged by a snow-swollen river in January had only recently cancelled their federal flood insurance policies because of rate increases. About 70 houses in West Seneca, just...
22 Charged in Florida Staged Flood, Fire Fraud Ring
Feb 6 2014 // A major fraud ring that staged fires and floods at South Florida homes to collect millions of dollars in claims from insurance companies has been broken up with charges against 22 people, authorities said Tuesday. The...
Western U.K. Homes Remain Powerless after Storms Batter Coast
Feb 6 2014 // Hundreds of homes in western England and Wales remained without power today after storms cut lines and damaged railway tracks. About 280 households had electricity cuts as of 8:30 a.m. U.K. time, said Western Power...
Restoring Housing Focus of Next Round of $1.46B N.J. Sandy Aid
Feb 5 2014 // Restoring housing and shoring up critical infrastructure will be the focus of how New Jersey spends its next round of Superstorm Sandy relief money. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s administration said Monday that...
Preliminary Flood Insurance Rate Maps Released for 2 N.J. Counties
Feb 4 2014 // The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on Monday released Preliminary Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) for New Jersey’s Middlesex and Monmouth Counties that reflect the latest refinements to the ongoing...
Judge Dismisses Kmart’s Mississippi Flood Damage Suit Against Kroger
Feb 4 2014 // A federal judge has dismissed Kmart Corp.’s lawsuit over flood damage to one of its stores in Corinth. U.S. District Judge Glen Davidson ruled that Kmart has insufficient evidence to support its arguments that the...
Key House Republicans Oppose Delaying Flood Insurance Increases
Feb 4 2014 // The effort to delay huge increases in insurance premiums for homeowners in flood-prone areas faces a skeptical House chairman who is largely standing behind the changes Congress oversaw in the nation’s flood...
Mass. Rep. Keating Urges House Approval of Flood Insurance Bill
Feb 3 2014 // U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., is calling for swift passage of a flood insurance bill in the House that would give hundreds of thousands of homeowners a reprieve from higher flood insurance premiums. The Democrat said...
Private Flood Insurance Provider Steps Into Connecticut Market
Feb 3 2014 // A private flood insurance provider has stepped into Connecticut’s market, the first time homeowners along the shoreline battered by Superstorm Sandy have an alternative to increasingly costly federal insurance. The...
Flood Insurance and the Phantom Real Estate Crash
Jan 31 2014 // To hear proponents tell the tale, the reason the U.S. Senate voted yesterday to gut reforms to the National Flood Insurance Program that it had approved overwhelmingly just 18 months earlier was to stem the effects of the...
UK Insurers to Pay Out $701 Million from December, January Floods
Jan 31 2014 // The insured bill for the damage caused by the storms and flooding over the Christmas 2013 and New Year period looks set to cost £426 million [$701 million], according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI). The ABI...
