One of the best ways to envision the importance of something is to think of our lives without it. Imagine life, for example, without our electronics that help us easily communicate. Similarly, to understand the importance of flood insurance, imagine our nation without it. We would have no strong financial recovery tool, no means or […]
Floods are the most common natural disaster in the United States. The Pew Charitable Trust recently reported that nearly half of U.S. states are expected to experience significant flood events during the spring of 2020. In just the past few years, major flood disasters such as Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Florence, and flood events in the […]
The most costly and frequent natural disaster in the United States is flooding. Recent years of U.S. disaster data tells this story. In 2017, for example, 80% of FEMA’s disaster spending was on flood-related events. Because of the exposure that flooding presents, nearly 1,500 communities around the country participate in the Community Rating System (CRS) […]
Leaders in the insurance industry anticipated that 2019, much like 2018, would be a tumultuous year for flood insurance with large catastrophic events, legislative impasse, administrative uncertainty. For the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and private flood insurance, all were true and may continue into 2020. Unlike other insurance programs, the NFIP is authorized by […]
When Congress passed the Biggert Waters Act of 2012 (BW12), the intent of Congress was to make it easier for lenders to accept private flood insurance to satisfy the mandatory purchase requirement. However, what the Act did was create vague language that took lending regulators seven years to finalize. Since the lending regulators had to […]
Recently, news broke about the roll out of Risk Rating 2.0, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s redesign of National Flood Insurance Program and how it will determine rates for flood insurance. The Massachusetts Coastal Coalition has followed Risk Rating 2.0 since the beginning of its development. After years of raising red flags and alerting policyholders […]
Before the start of 2018, many predicted political and economic uncertainty. This proved to be true of the National Flood Insurance Program and the flood insurance market. In total, 2018 brought three program lapses lasting over eight days with seven short term extensions and a series of Federal Emergency Management Agency leadership and administrative changes. […]
Written By: Joe Rossi, ANFI, CFM Flood Specialist, Rogers and Gray Insurance Chair and Executive Director, Massachusetts Coastal Coalition Tim Carty Owner, Murphy Carty Insurance Director, Massachusetts Coastal Coalition Congress enacted the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in 1968, intending to provide flood coverage because private insurance no longer offered it. By 1973, only […]
By: Joe Rossi, Flood Specialist at Rogers and Gray Insurance and Chair of the Massachusetts Coastal Coalition Ed Thomas, Attorney, floodplain manager and disaster and recovery specialist The ABA in 2017 passed a Resolution on Resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction in 2017. Recent flood disasters nationally have attracted more attention to proposals in the current […]
The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has been in the national news recently in a series of critical reports. One story criticized how the NFIP is using insureds’ premiums to deny claims and overpay insurance companies. Another criticized a proposed FEMA rule change allowing homeowners to rebuild after receiving a demolition grant for a flood-prone […]