[Think Progress News Site] What happens when a federal disaster relief program is a disaster?As days of devastating rain over Houston begins to break, residents will begin returning to their homes to assess the damage wrought by catastrophic flooding. When all is said and done, Hurricane Harvey and its associated flooding may have caused as much as $30 billion in damages for homeowners -- a dizzying total made worse by the fact that the federal flood insurance program, meant to offer relief for homeowners in the face of a natural disaster, is itself underwater and facing an uncertain future.
The National Flood Insurance Program -- administered by FEMA -- is currently roughly $25 billion in debt. That, according to flood experts, is because the program does not charge rates that actually reflect the risk associated with building homes in floodplains. Combine those low premiums with a series of devastating flood events in recent years, throw in the fact that flood insurance goes more toward rebuilding in flood-prone areas than helping people move to safer regions, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster aid that, itself, is a disaster.
"What’s happening around Hurricane Harvey, it just exposes all of the open sores that cover the flood insurance program," Rob Moore, a senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Water Program, told ThinkProgress.