The availability of a federal flood payout in a county in a given year increased the number of flood insurance policies by 5.2% and the total insured value of the policies by 4.6% in the following year, a new study shows.
The study examines the National Flood Insurance Program run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to quantify the relationships between the annual flood insurance payout in a county and flood related risk factors such as flood exposure, infrastructure and social vulnerability, community resilience and the number of mobile homes in the county.
The study predicted that climate change, which is expected to increase flood exposure in coastal counties, will increase the annual NFIP payout in New Orlean