Latest Flood Headlines
All the headlines from our Flood Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Now May Be the Time for Homeowners to Buy a Dam
Sep 8 2017 // Traveling from Louisiana, four 18-wheelers and more than a dozen workers rolled into the heart of Houston last Tuesday morning. The Cajun crew was there to unfurl and install a unique form of flood protection: three-foot...
Congress Eyes More FEMA Disaster Aid, Short-Term Flood Insurance Renewal
Sep 7 2017 // The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency will run out of disaster assistance funding on Friday unless Congress approves more money, two Florida senators warned on Thursday. As Hurricane Irma barrels through the...
New York City Reviews Plans on Flooding After Houston Disaster
Sep 7 2017 // New York is reviewing its plans for a massive rainstorm after the flooding that has left parts of Houston underwater for days. “We’re looking at what a Harvey-type event would mean in New York City,” said...
AIR Worldwide Estimates $65B – $75B in Texas Property Damage from Harvey Flooding
Sep 7 2017 // Boston-based catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide has estimated property losses from the flooding in Texas caused by Hurricane Harvey’s record-breaking rainfall will be between $65 billion and $75 billion. These...
Why the Number of Coastal Homeowners with Flood Insurance Has Been Shrinking
Sep 7 2017 // Amanda Spartz nearly did not renew her home’s flood insurance policy after her first year in Florida. Two hurricanes came close to the Fort Lauderdale suburbs last year, but they didn’t hit and her home...
Florida’s Private Flood Insurers Could Face Big Test from Hurricane Irma
Sep 6 2017 // Hurricane Irma could test a nascent private flood insurance market in Florida that some advocates say is a model for making U.S. flood coverage more affordable and commonplace in high-risk areas. Florida’s private...
Hurricane Harvey Puts Pressure on Regional Insurers in Texas, Says A.M. Best
Sep 5 2017 // Losses anticipated from Hurricane Harvey are unlikely to exceed the top reinsurance limits of insurers writing business in Texas, according to new Best’s Special Report, titled, “Texas Insurers Expected to...
Why Federal Flood Program Is Sinking Deeper Into Debt: CBO Report
Sep 5 2017 // The federal flood insurance program is on a course to continue falling deeper in debt, even when there is no catastrophic storm like Katrina or Harvey. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is currently on a path...
Remnants of Harvey Spawn Tornadoes, Floods Across Deep South
Sep 5 2017 // Wayne Doss surveys the damage to his cousin Danny Doss’ mobile home, which was completely destroyed by a tornado in Pickens County, Ala., after a tornado struck Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017. The tornado damaged several...
Harvey Leaves Texans to Clean Up Amid Health and Environmental Dangers
Sep 4 2017 // Harvey has moved on from the U.S. Gulf Coast, leaving behind a toxic stew of human sewage, dead cattle, leaking chemical plants, spilled gasoline storage tanks and abandoned pickup trucks. The cleanup will take patience,...
Insured Loss Estimates from Harvey Will Take Time
Sep 4 2017 // Flood losses from Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm late on Aug. 25 near Rockport, Texas, are expected to vastly outnumber those from wind but that doesn’t mean property losses will be...
Flood Insurance Losses from Harvey Could Match Katrina’s, I.I.I. Says
Sep 4 2017 // Flood damage in Texas from Hurricane Harvey may equal that from 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, according to an insurance research group. As heavy rain pounded Houston and...
WSIA: Past, Present and Future
Sep 4 2017 // The wholesale, specialty and surplus lines market is healthy and stable with a bright future. Proof of this can be found in recent quantitative analysis like A.M. Best’s 2017 Special Report on U.S. Surplus Lines, as...
Devastating S. Asia Floods Kill 1,400, Expose Lack of State Planning for Monsoons
Sep 1 2017 // The most devastating floods to hit South Asia in a decade have killed more than 1,400 people and focused attention on the poor planning and lack of preparedness for annual monsoon rains, as authorities struggle to get aid...
Analysis: 4 Things Houston Area Must Do to Prevent Future Flooding Disasters
Sep 1 2017 // An unprecedented amount of rain has fallen on the Houston area due to Hurricane Harvey, causing what’s likely the worst flooding event that the nation’s sixth-largest metropolitan area has ever experienced —...
Arkema Plant Fires Underscore Chemical Industry Risk Management Challenge
Sep 1 2017 // In its devastatingly slow crawl up the industrial Gulf Coast, Hurricane Harvey is proving to be the biggest test yet of the safety and vulnerabilities of the U.S. chemicals industry. A Houston-area chemical plant was hit...
Harvey Motivates Nashville to Revisit $100M Flood Protection Plan
Sep 1 2017 // A Tennessee city will revisit flood protection plans following flooding in Texas from Tropical Storm Harvey, which came ashore last week as a hurricane. WPLN-FM reports the Nashville Metro Council will meet next month to...
India’s Financial Hub Paralyzed by Torrential Monsoon Rains; Death Toll Rises
Aug 31 2017 // Two toddlers were among 14 people killed in Mumbai after floods caused by heavy monsoon rains destroyed homes and disrupted traffic in India’s financial capital, police said, but lighter-than-feared rain on Wednesday...
Tallying Massive Costs of Harvey to Victims, Insurers, Taxpayers and Economy
Aug 31 2017 // Hurricane Harvey’s costs to the victims in its path, to U.S. taxpayers, to insurers and to the economy were still being calculated on Wednesday, with few firm estimates available yet. Texas could need more than $125...
Harvey, Houston, America, Politics and Building Codes
Aug 31 2017 // Jerry Garcia’s home in Corpus Christi missed the worst of Hurricane Harvey by just a few miles and lost nothing more than some shingles and his backyard pier, which turned up further down Oso Bay. A 5-foot bulkhead...
