Flood plains will grow by 45%That was one of the findings by the Interagency Levee Policy Review Committee, which studied the challenges of the nation's levee system following Hurricane Katrina. Galloway chaired the panel.

"The committee recognizes that dealing with climate change, sea-level rise, linked levees, and future development requires the commitment of significant resources and represents a conceptual shift from basing criteria on present conditions to basing criteria on possible, but not fully quantifiable, future conditions," the panel said in its 117-page report. "Nevertheless, the committee believes that this step must be taken."

The agency is not considering the impacts of climate change within its proposed levee plan. But FEMA is studying how flood insurance could be affected by rising temperatures. The study's preliminary findings anticipate that flood plains nationwide will grow by about 45 percent, a huge rise that is expected to increase the program's exposure to risk.

Galloway, for his part, is chairing a new committee to assess FEMA's policy change, so he declined to take a position on the replacement of the "without levee" provision.

But he indicated that his past research, including the findings in a landmark report after the 1993 floods recommending mandatory insurance and limited development behind levees, remains a good way to reduce risk.

"Forget all this business about 'Is it a certified levee or not?'" he said. "No matter how tall your levee is, there's always the possibility that your levee could overtop."

Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500

2 Comments

1. 1. rickpublic 03:06 PM 1/18/12

   It's best to be honest about the risk though I suspect that most people do not understand risk. The other thing that needs to be done is stop federal subsidy of flood insurance. This amounts to encouraging development in areas that are high risk. I grew up on the Texas coast and there are housing and business areas on barrier islands. Made affordable because of subsidized flood insurance.

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2. 2. Wayne Williamson 07:41 PM 1/20/12

   rickpublic..the other side is when they start declaring places 20 miles from the coast a flood zone. In the Tampa Bay area(FL USA) they did this. If you have a mortgage on your house you get the privilege of seeing your insurance bump by 20 or 30 percent.

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