Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections As sea levels rise and storms become more extreme, a growing number of homeowners are struggling with flooding - not just once, but time and time again. Weber: “People are just faced over and over with damaging floods, and then having to put their lives back together each time.” Anna Weber is with the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council. An analysis by her group found that as of 2022, almost 45,000 U.S. properties are what the National Flood Insurance Program considers “severe repetitive loss properties,” which means they’ve experienced multiple severe floods. That’s about a 20% increase from just four years earlier. And many of these homes are likely to flood again. Weber: “Concerningly, the number of these properties that have had mitigation actions taken to reduce their risk - for example, homes can be elevated, or maybe the residents of the home could take a buyout and move someplace safer - that number is not increasing as quickly.” Weber says instead of just reimbursing homeowners for their losses, it’s important to make sure people have access to funding to make their homes more resilient. So they can break out of the repetitive cycle of flooding, rebuilding, and flooding again. |