From MarketWatch:

…Part of the reason for people not believing that they need flood insurance is due to reliance on “badly out-of-date” federal flood maps, according to the R Street Institute, D.C.-based free-market think tank.

Homeowners and buyers in America generally rely on FEMA’s flood maps, which indicate how likely it is that their area will flood.

But these maps aren’t going to be enough in an era of climate change and unpredictable weather, experts said.

The maps “fail to acknowledge the ways changing climactic and development patterns (such as the capacities of local drainage systems or the amount of impermeable ground cover) have shifted the risk of flooding,” the R Street report elaborated.

Plus, the maps only reflect past flood experience, and don’t reflect how climate change and rising sea levels heighten the likelihood of flooding…

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