The Department of Housing and Urban Development disproportionately sells homes in flood-prone areas, NPR finds. Housing experts warn that this can lead to big losses for vulnerable families.
About 15 million properties in the U.S. are prone to flooding, but patchwork and ineffective disclosure laws mean most people get little to no information about flood risk before they move.
States including Virginia and Texas have set aside significant money to address flooding. Local officials hope it will help pay for flood prevention projects that the federal government won't fund.
In many places there's no requirement to tell a home buyer if a house is at risk of flooding, even as climate change increases that risk. Some hope a new Texas law will be a national model.
The central U.S. just experienced the most widespread river flooding ever recorded there. Flood defenses in major cities largely performed well, but many smaller communities were simply overwhelmed.
There's no end in sight for the spending standoff that has forced the shutdown of about a quarter of the federal government. The longer the shutdown continues, the more services will be affected.
To work all the expected flood claims, insurance companies will rely on hundreds of small processing companies. Some worry that inexperienced claims adjusters will do more harm than good.
Flood managers suspect August's big rainstorms and floods in Louisiana are becoming more common there and elsewhere because of climate change. One clue: Much of the damage was beyond the flood plain.
More than three years after Superstorm Sandy, NPR and PBS's Frontline investigate the thousands still not home, the government agencies that failed to help and the companies that made millions.
Ten years ago, tiny Pearlington, Miss., got hit with a 30-foot wall of water, inundating homes that hadn't flooded in 50 years. Some rebuilt — repeatedly — but for others, the incentive isn't there.
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