Latest Flood Headlines
All the headlines from our Flood Topic Page, ordered by recency.
President Obama Endorses House Flood Insurance Bill in Deficit Plan
Sep 20 2011 // President Barack Obama endorsed key elements of a U.S. flood insurance reform bill passed by the House in the tax and deficit plan he unveiled Monday, even as the reform has stalled in the Senate without a clear path...
Industry Expects Another Short-Term Extension for Flood Insurance Program
Sep 19 2011 // Congress is poised to pass yet another short-term extension of the federal flood insurance program, giving it more time to consider two competing bills reforming the debt-ridden program. The House could vote this Wednesday...
Corps Pegs 2011 Flood Damage to Levees at $2B
Sep 19 2011 // The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates it will cost more than $2 billion to repair the damage to the nation’s levees, dams and riverbanks caused by this year’s excessive flooding, a sum that dwarfs $150...
Corps Backs Missouri River Study
Sep 19 2011 // After months of sustained, historic Midwest flooding and criticism that the government bungled its management of the Missouri River, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it has commissioned a study of its handling of the...
Customer Satisfaction with Home Insurers Improves, Says J.D. Powers
Sep 19 2011 // Customer satisfaction with homeowners insurance companies this year is up from 2010, but still remains below levels achieved in 2009. Overall satisfaction with homeowners insurance companies averages 769 in 2011 —...
Appeals Period Starts for Flood Maps in Louisiana’s Bossier Parish
Sep 16 2011 // Residents in Louisiana’s Bossier Parish have 90 days from Sept. 14 to file objections with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the parish’s new flood insurance rate maps. The Times reports that the maps...
Senate Will Consider Wind vs. Water Formula
Sep 16 2011 // Senate leaders have agreed to consider a provision designed to help settle wind versus water claims in a more timely and equitable manner as part of reauthorization of the federal flood insurance program. The...
County In Arizona Moves $2.5 Million to Flood Projects
Sep 14 2011 // The Mohave County Board of Supervisors in Arizona is looking ahead to flash floods and the destruction they can cause. On Monday the board handed out $4.8 million for flood-control projects in communities throughout Mohave...
Flood Insurance Has Paid $43 Million in Missouri River Floods
Sep 14 2011 // Federal flood insurance has already paid out $43 million to help policyholders deal with the damage caused by flooding along the Missouri River even though the floodwaters haven’t fully receded. The Federal Emergency...
Flood Maps Could Force Thousands in North Dakota to Buy Insurance
Sep 14 2011 // Fargo, N.D., city engineers say an additional 7,500 homeowners may be required to purchase federal flood insurance when new flood plain maps are released. The Federal Emergency Management Agency rate map will show homes...
During Floods, Mississippi River Tried to Carve New Path
Sep 13 2011 // Since the waters from this spring’s floods receded, officials have identified places where the Mississippi River tried to carve out new channels and change course. From northwest Tennessee to Louisiana, the...
RMS Estimates Irene Insured Losses At Up to $5.5 Billion
Sep 13 2011 // Hurricane Irene caused between $2.5 billion and $5.5 billion in insured losses in the United States and the Caribbean, excluding flood claims that fall under federal insurance programs, catastrophe modeling company RMS...
As River Recedes from Lee, Pennsylvanians Return to Wilkes-Barre Homes
Sep 11 2011 // Tens of thousands of evacuated Pennsylvania residents were allowed to return home starting Saturday as rivers swollen by the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee receded across Pennsylvania after flooding that was the worst in...
North Carolina County to Buy Flood-Damaged Homes
Sep 9 2011 // Mecklenburg County in North Carolina plans to buy more than a dozen homes damaged by flooding last month. County commissioners saidthey plan to spend up to $2 million as part of an effort to remove homes located in...
Officials: Louisiana Home-Raisings Prevented Flooding from TS Lee
Sep 8 2011 // Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana officials say an aggressive effort by parish government to use federal grant programs for elevation of homes is a likely reason why so few homes flooded in Terrebonne as a result of Tropical...
Senate Committee Passes Federal Flood Insurance Reform Legislation
Sep 8 2011 // As many property owners continue to recover from hurricane and tropical storms Irene and Lee and new storms form offshore, the U.S. Senate is taking steps to renew the federal flood insurance program. Today, the Senate...
AIR Estimates Talas Insured Losses between $150 -$600 Million
Sep 8 2011 // Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide’s initial estimates for insured losses from Tropical Storm Talas are between JPY 12 billion ($150 million) and JPY 46 billion ($600 million). Talas is the season’s 12th...
North Carolina County Recovers From Trio of Disasters
Sep 7 2011 // Driving along the back roads of Bertie County, it’s hard sometimes to tell one disaster’s damage from another. That huge old tree, its limbs chopped and stacked after falling across a road, was definitely...
UPDATE: Killer Typhoon Talas Brings More Misery to Japan
Sep 7 2011 // Japan braced for more heavy rain and floods Monday as the death toll from the worst typhoon to hit the country in seven years climbed to 34. Rescuers searched for 55 others who remained missing, and tens of thousands of...
After Drenching New Orleans, Tropical Storm Lee Threatens Southeast
Sep 5 2011 // After testing New Orleans’ flood defenses over the weekend, Tropical Storm Lee moved northeast Monday after weakening to a tropical depression, and threatened to bring heavy rains and flooding to a large section of...
