As California begins to dry out from its recent deluges, one stark reality is coming into focus: Only 230,000 homes and other buildings are insured against flooding in a state with about 39 million residents
has dulled people's sense of the risk of flooding. People usually buy insurance after disasters when the risk is visceral, said Amy Bach, the executive director of insurance consumers group United Policyholders.
Yet FEMA maps are limited and only take into account certain kinds of flooding — they don't really predict flood risk. Flooding caused by heavy rains that back up storm drains is not counted, for example. The limitations mean flood risk is underestimated nationally. The maps particularly lowball the chance of disaster in California, according to Matthew Eby, executive director of First Street Foundation, a risk analysis organization.
The storms damaged several thousand homes so badly they'll need to be repaired before people can live in them again. But Nicholas Pinter, a professor at the University of California, Davis who researches watersheds, said California needs to be prepared for even bigger events and that requires far more investment in flood defenses and more awareness of its danger.
Also trying to figure out how to recover is David Enero in Merced, a community of roughly 90,000 in California's Central Valley that flooded badly. Water rose ankle-deep in his house. The laminate floor in his living room floated. Although the maps force Enero and others in certain areas to buy coverage, FEMA no longer uses its famous maps to set the prices.in 2021 to more accurately reflect risk and dubbed it Risk Rating 2.0. FEMA says these revised prices -- and not flood maps -- are what communicate flood risk to consumers. The old system placed more emphasis on simple metrics — a home's elevation and whether it was in a mapped flood zone. Risk Rating 2.
Laub said he’s worried his mobile home might have sunk in the soggy ground, which could require him to relevel it. He said he’s not sure how he would pay for it.
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