Climate Change and Flood Insurance
The sixth in an ongoing “Climate Adaptation Forum” series held three times per year.
Flooding causes tremendous social and economic disruption to communities, and recovery can be very costly. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was created in 1968 in to identify and reduce overall flood risk, and provide affordable flood insurance. Almost all municipalities in the DVRPC region participate in the NFIP. However, due to catastrophic storms in recent years, such as hurricanes Katrina, Sandy and Harvey, insurance claims have vastly outstripped the premiums collected by the NFIP. As a result, the program has borrowed almost $30 billion from the US Treasury that it cannot afford to repay. Furthermore, climate change is projected to increase flood risk, due to both sea level rise and more intense precipitation events.
Against this backdrop, this Climate Adaptation Forum will explore the structure of the NFIP, which has been overdue for re-authorization since 2017, and discuss policies under active consideration to restructure the program to appropriately assign responsibility for risk, support vulnerable communities, and enhance long-term resiliency. The tradeoffs involved are complex. However, they must be addressed, as the program continues to operate in a deficit and the value of assets exposed to risk from flooding is only expected to grow.
This will be an interactive workshop, with plenty of time for discussion and questions.
The panelists include:
Carolyn Kousky, Ph.D., Director for Policy Research and Engagement at the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
Richard J. Sobota, CPCU, Senior Insurance Specialist from FEMA Region III
John A. Miller, P.E., CFM, CSM, Water Resources Engineer, Certified Floodplain & Stormwater Manager
Please register at: https://dvrpc.ticketleap.com/NFIP/. There is no cost for this workshop.
Networking and Coffee from 9:00-9:30 am
Event from 9:30 am to Noon
Networking Lunch from Noon to 1:00 pm
Questions: Rob Graff 215-238-2826/ [email protected] or Chris Linn 215-238-2873/ [email protected]
Approved for 2.5 APA AICP CM credits.
Attendance certificates for ASFPM Certified Floodplain Manager Program CEC credit will be provided upon request.