Congress should renew national flood insurance

Sara Kyle
Guest columnist
Aerial footage from Business 35 and 12th Street in Rockport, TX following Hurricane Harvey.

The images from Texas and Louisiana and especially Puerto Rico captured our attention here in Tennessee. Many of us gave our time, money, labor and prayers to the people affected by the recent devastating storms -- and continue to do so. The storms also brought back memories of our own struggles coping with major flooding and devastation.

But until you have three or four feet of water throughout your home, soaking everything you own, destroying appliances, contaminating furniture and the very walls around you with bacteria-laden mud, and ruining keepsakes, it is impossible to fathom just how difficult it is to cope with this type of tragedy. 

In Memphis, we have seen the devastating toll that flooding can have on a community -- from the massive flooding in 2011 to the countless other flooding incidences before and since.  Flood insurance is important to residents of the city, especially given our close proximity to the Mississippi river.

It is not as unlikely as we would like to think. In fact, 90 percent of natural disasters in this country involve flooding. The danger is only increasing, with powerful storms like Harvey and Irma and Maria on the rise.

As a nation, we rely on the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to be there when homes are in the path of destructive waters. In flood-prone areas, lenders require NFIP coverage before issuing a mortgage. The program insures nearly five million policyholders in every state.

Rising water, caused by Hurricane Sandy, rushes into a subterranean parking garage on Oct. 29, 2012, in New York's Financial District.

But these are difficult times for the NFIP. With the increase in flood events, the NFIP is $25 billion in debt. The program is set to expire Dec. 8. If Congress allows that to happen, it would leave flood insurance policyholders in 22,000 American communities without coverage -- including over 1,500 Memphians.

Congress needs to reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program so that Memphians, Tennesseans and Americans nationwide have this protection and security against flooding.

Our nation’s need for flood coverage is not going to decrease; in fact, statistics show that disastrous weather events are increasing both in intensity and frequency. The cost of repairing and rebuilding after a flood is on the rise, and that is not likely to stop.

We recently marked the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, which resulted in at least 182 deaths in the United States and the Caribbean, and more than $71 billion in destruction in the U.S. Many Atlantic coast residents say they are still waiting to repair and rebuild their homes. For them, Sandy never ended.

We cannot stop catastrophic weather events that bring devastating flooding. What we can stop, however, is repeating the same mistakes over and over. Smart planning is not about the distant future, it’s about right now.

Sara Kyle of Memphis represents the 30th Senate District in the Tennessee General Assembly.

State Sen. Sara Kyle