Latest Flood Headlines

All the headlines from our Flood Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Findlay, Ohio, Could Face Higher Flood Insurance Costs

Aug 18 2014 // Leaders in a northwestern Ohio city that has seen more than its share of flooding say the Federal Emergency Management Agency has threatened to put the its flood insurance program on “probation.” Officials in...

Flood Insurance Premium Refunds in Process

Aug 18 2014 // The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is being praised for moving quickly and ahead of schedule to get $100 million in flood insurance premium refunds into the hands of the one million policyholders who...

Interview with South Carolina Commissioner Farmer

Aug 18 2014 // State’s Insurance Markets Moving in Right Direction, Says Former AIA Rep South Carolina Insurance Commissioner Ray Farmer has been the state’s insurance regulator since Governor Nikki Haley appointed him in...

40% of Properties Flooded in Detroit Suburb; Governor Declares Disaster

Aug 15 2014 // Officials in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn say about 40 percent of homes and commercial properties in the city were flooded or had sewer backups in their basements when heavy rain hit the area on Aug. 11. The National...

Possible Factor in Detroit-Area Flooding? Metal Theft

Aug 14 2014 // The state says the theft of copper from pumping stations used to clear water from Detroit-area freeways may have been a contributing factor in this week’s major highway flooding. Michigan Department of Transportation...

Severe Floods Overwhelm Detroit Area; Slow Vehicle Production

Aug 13 2014 // A woman died when her vehicle became stranded in 3 feet of water in suburban Detroit, after heavy rain across southeastern Michigan left many roads impassable. Fearing more motorists could become stranded a day after a...

Typhoon Halong Inundates Japan: AIR Analysis

Aug 12 2014 // Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide’s report on former Typhoon Halong notes that it was downgraded to a tropical storm before making its first landfall in Japan on Shikoku Island at approximately 6 a.m. Japan...

Maryland Gov. O’Malley Announces Disaster Relief for June Flooding

Aug 11 2014 // Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has announced a disaster relief package to help residents of Allegany and Washington counties who were affected by flooding in June. The governor announced the relief last Friday. The...

Typhoon Halong Nears Japan; Saturday Landfall Expected: AIR Analysis

Aug 8 2014 // According the catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, strong winds and heavy rainfall from Typhoon Halong have already arrived on Japan’s Daito Islands (about 320 km [200 miles] east of Okinawa), with reports of...

Louisiana Flood Authority Challenges Law Blocking ‘Big Oil’ Lawsuit

Aug 7 2014 // A south Louisiana flood authority is fighting a new state law aimed at retroactively killing a lawsuit filed last year over coastal damage attributed to oil and gas drilling. The Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection...

Nuisance Flooding Rising Problem for U.S. Cities: NOAA

Aug 7 2014 // Residents and officials in major U.S. cities know it doesn’t take a fierce storm or menacing hurricane to cause flooding as they increasingly have to deal with so-called “nuisance flooding” caused by...

Typhoons a Major Cause of Losses in July: Aon Benfield – Impact Forecasting

Aug 7 2014 // The latest edition of Aon Benfield’s Impact Forecasting’s Global Catastrophe Recap report concludes that Super Typhoon Rammasun, which made separate landfalls in the Philippines and China, caused widespread...

New York’s Breezy Point Dune Plan Passes First Review

Aug 6 2014 // A multimillion-dollar request to the federal government for a grant to build a dune system and other coastal protections for a Queens, New York, neighborhood that lost 355 homes to fire and flooding during Superstorm Sandy...

Focusing on Disaster Costs Before Rather Than After They Happen

Aug 6 2014 // The United States spends a lot of money responding to natural disasters but comparatively little trying to limit the costs of disasters before they happen. As the costs to the government and the insurance industry mount,...

Feds to Loan $2.1M to Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish for Flood Upgrade

Aug 4 2014 // State officials say they’ve received approval of a $2.1 million low-interest, energy efficiency loan to support Jefferson Parish’s efforts to upgrade its flood-protection system. The Louisiana Department of...

Vermont Seeks Flood Damage Assessment After Storm

Aug 4 2014 // The state of Vermont is asking officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help them determine if repairs to damage from flash flooding in the Chester area would be eligible for disaster assistance. If the...

Mass. OKs Bill Tying Flood Insurance to Mortgage Balance

Aug 4 2014 // Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick on July 23 signed into law legislation that prohibits creditors from requiring residential property owners to buy flood insurance in an amount that exceeds the balance of their mortgage or...

Hurricane Arthur’s Insured Losses Below $250M: RMS

Aug 4 2014 // Insured losses from Hurricane Arthur will not exceed $250 million from wind and coastal flooding, catastrophe risk modeling firm RMS said. According to RMS, the expected loss covers damages to: Residential, commercial,...

6.5 Million Homes from Maine to Texas at Risk for Storm Surge: CoreLogic

Aug 4 2014 // More than 6.5 million homes along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts are at risk of storm surge inundation, representing nearly $1.5 trillion in total potential reconstruction costs. More than $986 billion of that risk is...

FEMA Administrator Questioned Over Sandy Flood Claims

Aug 1 2014 // The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency has asked an independent watchdog to examine whether the flood-insurance program is shortchanging Superstorm Sandy victims. Administrator Craig Fugate testified before a...