Editing Tokyo Rhode Island Singapore Review: Flood insurance rate hike for coastal areas

The US Congress has implemented a mandate regarding the revision of insurance premiums, resulting in added burden for property owners under the National Flood Insurance Program.

The program apparently has USD 24 billion in debt and could no longer keep up with the dues because of subsidies in premiums and the expenses on hurricanes Sandy and Katrina. Insurance rates are now expected to increase by about 10% per year while surcharges ranging from USD 25-250 are also estimated. And for many Broadkill property owners, those will effectively cancel out any benefit from a beach renourishment project.
 
A member of the state advisory committee that [http://www.thekeeleygroup.com/ conducts sea level rise studies] admitted that the beach widening at Broadkill will obviously make it more agreeable, but not to the homeowners who are looking at significantly higher flood insurance rates.
 
Unfortunately, this came at a time when the federal government is phasing out flood insurance subsidies for almost a million Americans who live in flood-prone communities. According to the Government Accountability Office, the insurance program only has sufficient funds to pay the debt interest.
 
One solution to lower the insurance rates would be to do mass renovations on the community's structures in order to put them on higher elevation. Making such upgrades the standard in a coastal area would lessen the likelihood of them getting damaged by flooding.
 
Three years after the Superstorm Sandy hit the area; a study by the Army Corps of Engineers found out that the areas which survived the onslaught have a common factor -- sand dunes and wide beaches. This, in turn, led many to start creating protective sand dunes and widen depleted beaches.
 
However, officials from Delaware and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) have been urging the government to reconsider the idea that renourished beaches can decrease the potential of storm and flood damage. They argued that such manmade beaches are still likely to wash away easily.
 
Keeley Consulting Group further observed that other coastal areas are gradually caving in just the same due to the natural geological process called subsidence. Apparently, dumping more sand to expand the beaches is not going to cut the inevitable increase of flood insurance premiums.
 
A manager from the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control noted that such a project like the one in Broadkill is merely a temporary solution as there's no assurance that a wider beach will really last.