The National Flood Insurance Program: Some Midstream Perspectives

Abstract

Federal flood control works and disaster relief have not curtailed rising annual flood losses in the United States. The National Flood Insurance Program takes a new approach. Flood insurance at low rates is offered in communities which adopt floodplain regulations prescribed by the Federal Insurance Administration. Thirteen thousand communities are participating in NFIP on a provisional basis. Final implementation awaits completion of federal floodplain maps. Timely regulation of floodplains by local communities is unnecessarily delayed by various legal and hydrologic issues.