How to achieve better flood-risk governance in the United States

Abstract

Recent flood disasters (Fig. 1) have exposed issues with how flood risk is governed in the United States, raising questions about who owns responsibility for managing and paying for losses. In February 2017, 190,000 residents were evacuated as the primary and emergency spillways at Oroville Dam in California failed, a scenario that had been raised to and dismissed by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission engineers in 2005. To date, more than $1 billion in claims has been filed with the State of California associated with recovery from this failing infrastructure. More recently, the nation watched as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma flooded cities across the South, threatening to considerably deepen the National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP’s) $25 billion debt. Fig. 1. Recent flooding has decimated infrastructure and left thousands homeless. In October 2015, Hurricane Joaquin caused widespread flooding in South Carolina and destroyed Cary Lake dam in Columbia ( Upper Left ). Heavy rain and flooding caused the Oroville Dam spillway in northern California to fail in February 2017 ( Upper Right ). And in August 2017, massive rains from Hurricane Harvey spurred extensive flooding across much of Houston ( Bottom Left and Right ). Images courtesy of Hermann Fritz (Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta) ( Upper Left ), The California Department of Water Resources ( Upper Right ), Shutterstock/DIIMSA Researcher ( Lower Left ), and Shutterstock/michelmond ( Lower Right ). Furthermore, the 2017 hurricane season highlighted some of the key failures in the nation’s leadership regarding flood response. Much of Houston, TX, failed to evacuate during Hurricane Harvey after mixed messages from political leaders and a catastrophic evacuation in 2005, and only 20% of homeowners in the area have flood insurance. More than 3,400 water evacuations were conducted within the 4 days after the hurricane made landfall (Fig. 1, Bottom Right ), and the uninsured losses are expected to soar. Hurricanes Irma and Maria both exposed … [↵][1]1Email: Desiree.Tullos{at}oregonstate.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1