State leaders tasked with reviewing Maine’s preparations and responses to climate change-fueled natural disasters are at a crossroads.
Public infrastructure has been repeatedly damaged, including the coast’s working waterfronts, and the state has been reliant on federal disaster assistance to rebuild and strengthen damaged infrastructure.wondered whether a public insurance option offered by the state could protect both the uninsured and the state’s own public infrastructure.
If extended beyond the public domain, Colgan imagines the program could also provide an additional layer of protection for Maine property owners — acting as a low-cost insurance option that would fill the gaps of federally-backed flood insurance.The idea for a publicly-funded option in Maine energized fellow commission members when Colgan presented it in early September, shortly after the group painted a grim picture of the state’s current insurance coverage.
Commission members only had vague ideas of what could be causing the decline in the number of homes and buildings covered under the National Flood Insurance Program. More houses could be owned outright, Slovinsky suggested, meaning that homeowners would not be required to purchase a flood insurance policy like they would with most federally-backed mortgages.or because they don’t trust that the payout will be worth the premium.
“A lot of the working waterfront facilities that were destroyed are private utilities, but provide essential public services,” said Dan Tishman, commission co-chair and chairman of Tishman Realty & Construction. That’s where Nelson thought Colgan’s public insurance model could come into play, bridging the gap between simply rebuilding at-risk infrastructure and strengthening or relocating it to weather future climate change-induced storms.
Members suggested other, more actionable ideas to address the insurance issue; like funding a study to determine why flood insurance participation is falling, increasing municipal participation in a federal program that brings down flood insurance rates, and general outreach.
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