Flood risk management in the United States and the impact of Hurricane Katrina

Abstract

In 1993, the United States experienced a flood that produced the highest economic damages of the century Large areas of the Midwest were underwater for weeks as the Missouri and Upper Mississippi Rivers left their banks. Over 130 people lost their lives and flood losses grew to over $20 billion (US). For a few years after, national attention was focused on floodplain management, but, as other issues faced the government, efforts to develop a new approach to dealing with flood losses faded. Hurricane Katrina, with the deaths of over 1300 persons and billions of dollars in damages, brought flooding back to the front page of the newspapers and has stirred a new interest in developing a more rational approach to occupance of the floodplain and to use of new approaches to flood damage reduction. As a result of several recent studies and government actions, attention is now being focused on the use of risk analysis methodologies to support decisions on floodplain use, slowly edging the United States closer to flood risk management and away from floodplain management. This paper discusses the lessons learned from the 1993 flood, the actions taken in the United States since 1993, and the impact Hurricane Katrina is having on bringing risk into the decisions that shape floodplain use in the United States.