Backlash Over Flood Insurance Hits Congress
The popular backlash against the government's attempts to reform its flood insurance system has reached the halls of Congress.The Senate could vote as early as Wednesday to delay rate hikes for...
View ArticleFlood Insurance Bill Clears Senate
The U.S. Senate voted Thursday to delay planned increases in flood insurance rates that many homeowners along the coasts of New Jersey and New York have said would price them out of their homes.The...
View ArticleObama Signs Bill to Hold Down Flood Insurance Premiums
Homeowners in the nation's flood-prone areas got a big break today. President Obama signed the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act into law, which dramatically slows down the federal...
View ArticleNJ Flood Zone Building Rules Conflict with FEMA
The pace of construction is picking up at the Jersey Shore as more homeowners receive funding to repair or rebuild their Sandy-damaged homes. But federal officials and flood insurance experts are...
View ArticleThese Homes Took a Licking and Kept on Costing Taxpayers
One house in the northern New Jersey town of River Vale has been flooded at least 15 times in the last 36 years. And each time, the taxpayer-supported National Flood Insurance Program has paid to...
View ArticleSenators: Sandy Homeowners Systematically Denied Insurance Claims
Four metro-area U.S. senators have accused flood insurance companies of mishandling claims by homeowners for Sandy-related damage, in light of a judge's decision that found a company had hired an...
View ArticleFEMA Promises Fix to Flood Insurance System that Leaves Homeowners in Lurch
Months of pressure from storm survivors and lawmakers in New York and New Jersey culminated Friday with the Federal Emergency Management Agency committing to make changes in key parts of the National...
View ArticleRaid on Engineering Firm Suspected of Undercutting Sandy Homeowners
Investigators for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Wednesday raided the headquarters of a Long Island firm that allegedly falsified damage assessments for homes flooded by Sandy.The search...
View ArticleNational Flood Insurance Was Once Just Broke; Now It Looks Broken
The nation's flood insurance system, which has been in bad shape for a while, just got worse. Sandy and Hurricane Katrina put it $24 billion in the red. Meanwhile, fiscal watchdogs accused the National...
View ArticleNY Lawmaker Proposes Alternative to Federal Flood Insurance
Homeowners in New York would have a new alternative to federal flood insurance, under legislation being introduced in Albany this week. Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder said it would create a New York Flood...
View ArticleFEMA Begins Settling Flood Insurance Claims
Just two weeks after it began negotiations, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has tentatively settled lawsuits with 160 Sandy homeowners who claim insurance companies cheated them by...
View ArticleResolving FEMA's Flood Claims Could Cost Billions
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has agreed to re-examine many as 15,000 insurance claims related to Sandy after homeowners complained they were being systematically cheated out of damage...
View ArticleFlood Insurance Hikes Endanger NYC's Shoreline, Advocates Say
For years, fiscal watchdogs have been complaining that flood insurance rates are so low that the government-run program needs repeated bailouts from taxpayers. Now that something is being done about...
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Why Sandy Homeowners Were Left in the Lurch
Sandy’s storm surge was so strong when it hit Long Island in October 2012 that it lifted up Dan Stapleton’s Long Beach home and then kicked in the corner of the foundation. It left a 30-foot hole...
View ArticleGiven the Chance to Appeal, Many Sandy Victims Give Up Instead
Sitting with her husband on the back deck of their home on a quiet cul-de-sac in the Beach Haven West section of Stafford Township, Sandy Maglio looks out on a channel where her neighbors park their...
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The Fight Over the City's Flood Zones Will Matter for Years to Come
The de Blasio administration is challenging new flood maps proposed by the FEMA, saying they are too large. The orange areas show what city officials believe should be included in the 100-year-flood...
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How Louisiana plans to rebuild after historically damaging floods
Watch Video | Listen to the AudioHARI SREENIVASAN: As Louisiana struggles with historic floods, residents begin to wonder, what next?William Brangham has the story.RELATED: LEARN MORE ABOUT WAYS TO...
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As Harvey floods Texas, Congress due to debate insurance program that’s...
Watch Video | Listen to the AudioFind all of our coverage on Hurricane HarveyMILES O’BRIEN: It will take years to rebuild from Harvey, of course. It’s too early to know the full extent of the damage,...
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Can Congress fix the troubled federal flood insurance program?
A woman is evacuated by airboat from the Hurricane Harvey floodwaters in Houston, Texas, on August 29, 2017. Photo by REUTERS/Rick WilkingAs the largest flooding event in modern U.S. history affects...
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In a Texas shelter, evacuees ‘don’t know what we lost or what we didn’t lose’
Tanya Hernandez (second from right) sits on the air mattress where she has been sleeping with her three children. Photo by Abbey Oldham / PBS NewsHour As Hurricane Harvey bore down on Texas this...
View ArticleWhy 80 Percent of Hurricane Harvey Victims Don't Have Flood Insurance
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview. This week there’s been a lot of focus on the immediate damage created by Hurricane Harvey in Texas, but it won’t be long before the focus will...
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How will climate change impact future floods and flood insurance?
Houses are seen submerged in flood waters caused by Tropical Storm Harvey in Northwest Houston, Texas, on August 30, 2017. Photo by REUTERS/Adrees LatifEditor’s note: Radley Horton is a professor at...
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After Harvey and Irma, what’s the future of flood insurance?
Watch Video | Listen to the AudioJUDY WOODRUFF: This hurricane season has seen one devastating storm after another. Harvey, Irma and now Maria have left communities in ruin in their wake and put a...
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Trump administration asks Congress for $29 billion in disaster aid
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz before a briefing to survey hurricane damage, at Muniz Air National Guard Base in Carolina, Puerto Rico, U.S. October 3,...
View ArticleCity Spends Billions on Sandy-Damaged Homes, but Leaves Many Vulnerable
To the long list of complaints that has bedeviled the city's Build it Back program, add this one: When the program concludes next year, the city will have paid billions of dollars to rehab homes...
View ArticleAfter Sandy, Companies Profit from Flood Insurance Do-over
As the Federal Emergency Management Agency scrambled to right the wrongs of flood insurance companies under its watch, it was paying some two hundred workers $750 a day to do nothing.“We’d be sitting...
View ArticleBrooklyn Residents Fear Flood Insurance Changes Will Force Them From Their...
In the face of climate change, federal flood insurance is more important than ever. But some experts and homeowners fear changes to the program that are underway could actually push people out of their...
View ArticleClimate Change and Flood Insurance; Culture Wars and Teaching History; 'Heat...
On today's show:Leslie Scism, a news editor for the Wall Street Journal, discusses how climate change, and the catastrophic damage it's causing to coastal communities, is changing the way home...
View ArticleClimate Change and Flood Insurance
Leslie Scism, a news editor for the Wall Street Journal, covering life and property-casualty insurance, joins to discuss how climate change, and the catastrophic damage it's causing to coastal...
View ArticleNot Built For This #3: The Price is Wrong
Insurance companies are not climate activists, but they know more about climate risk than just about anyone. And as storms get more extreme and unpredictable a lot of insurers are running the numbers...
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