The other half pay annual flood insurance premiums, but because the properties are classified as repetitive loss, they’re charged far higher annual prices than their neighbors. That’s what North Miami did with one of its repetitive loss properties in 2019, which is now a mini park designed to absorb the neighborhood’s floodwater on rainy days.īut the rest of those 3,000 or so properties remain unfixed. Of the 3,100, only a hundred have been fixed in the last few decades, either by elevating the house high enough that it doesn’t flood, or buying the property, razing the house and turning the empty lot into a grassy lot that absorbs water. That number could soar in next year’s data as the city counted more than 1,100 homes flooded after the “rain bomb.” Many residents in neighborhoods like River Oaks reported that it wasn’t the first time they’d had damage.Īccording to the NRDC analysis of FEMA’s data, the vast majority of the state’s problem properties remain highly vulnerable. FEMA shows only 23 insured homes in the city that have experienced repeated flooding. Weber said that some of the Florida list have flooded more than nine times in the last decade alone.īecause the FEMA numbers run only through the end of 2022, they don’t show repetitive loss figures from the historic rainfall that drowned some low-lying Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods last April. Two new bills filed this year could address it, but previous attempts to solve the problem in Tallahassee have failed. ‘Secret Orlando’ book co-authored by Fox 35 anchor reveals weird, obscure destinationsīut Floridians don’t get to know where, exactly, these homes are, due to federal and state laws that block renters or home buyers from learning about past flooding on private properties. Florida added about 120 of those homes from 2021 to 2022.

There are about 45,000 of these properties in the U.S., as of the end of 2022, with about 3,100 in Florida alone, according to FEMA data analyzed by the NRDC. The FEMA data in question, released by the NRCD on Tuesday, is just part of the flood damage picture, showing only what the federal government declares as a “severe repetitive loss property.” That designation covers homes that have flooded twice, with damage totaling the value of the property, or flooded four times with at least $5,000 of damage each time.

Fema flood zones