Presto chango: How flood map revisions allow building in risky areas
Across the country, developers regularly use flood map changes to build in areas vulnerable to flooding, despite warnings from flood experts and community groups.
State of emergency
Katrina. Sandy. Harvey. Maria. Each was a disaster of shattering magnitude, battering America’s shores over the past two decades. But between these pivotal storms lie hundreds of smaller disasters that garner a fraction of the national attention and the billions of federal dollars that accompany them.
Behind the numbers: National Flood Insurance Program
As part of our joint investigation into the business of disaster recovery, FRONTLINE and NPR tried to determine how much profit the private insurance companies running the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) were making. FEMA pays fees to approximately 80 companies to sell and service flood policies, but claims are paid …
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Why have a national flood-insurance program?
The National Flood Insurance Program is run by the Federal Emergency Management Administration. Unlike other forms of homeowners’ insurance, the government pays roughly 80 private insurance companies’ fees to sell policies and settle claims. The premiums from those policies are meant to cover losses, but when a disaster becomes too costly, the taxpayers, not the …
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Business of Disaster
PBS FRONTLINE, NPR and IRW examine why thousands of residents of New Jersey and New York are still struggling more than three years after a huge East Coast storm devastated their communities.
