Questioning the National Flood Insurance Program’s Repeat Payouts

Beth Daley reports on the “Severe Repetitive Loss properties” that repeatedly receive tax-payer funded insurance payouts when battered by flooding.

“There are 534 properties in New England alone that the Federal Emergency Management Agency considers Severe Repetitive Loss properties — meaning in most cases that the flood insurance program has paid the owners for four significant flood claims, two within one decade. Nationally, according to FEMA, there are about 12,000 such properties.”

Daley starts the article by focusing on the town of Scituate. “Scituate has 112 [Severe Repetitive Loss properties]. Over the years, such properties have accounted for 689 losses. The total in claims: $21.3 million.”

Daley focuses on some of the specific properties in question, as well as the implications of recent congressional actions to adjust flood insurance premiums.