Flooding is the most common and costly natural disaster in the U.S., significantly affecting homes, businesses, infrastructure, and the environment. Since 2000, flood-related disasters in the U.S. accounted for more than $850 billion in damage and losses.
Pew aims to reduce these impacts by improving policies and planning at the federal and state levels to:
Enhance pre-disaster mitigation: Directing more resources toward and increasing the use of proactive approaches, such as removing properties from flood-prone areas, increasing green space, and restoring and protecting flood plains, will limit the effects and cost of floods.
Ensure infrastructure is flood-ready: Updating the nation’s roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, and other critical infrastructure to better withstand future flood events will help improve community resilience and reduce taxpayer losses.
Establish flood-resilient states: Systematic planning and adoption of nature-based solutions to address flood risks will reduce the severity of floods, boost states’ ability to withstand future storms, and lower disaster costs.
Modernize federal flood insurance: Reforming the National Flood Insurance Program to reflect current and future threats; remove incentives for development in flood-prone areas; and break the costly cycle of flooding, damage, and repair will help the program better meet its goals of lowering federal spending on disaster response and rebuilding.
With natural disasters increasing in number and severity—from 2000 to 2021 a flood happened somewhere in the U.S. on eight out of every 10 days—federal, state, and local governments are working to both respond to emergency situations and craft forward-looking, measurable policies that better reflect the current and future climate reality.
Flood-related disasters have cost the United States more than $900 billion in damage and economic losses since 2000 and have affected every state. Experts expect future flood events to be more prevalent and severe, challenging all levels of government to manage increasingly devastating impacts.
Each year across the United States, communities large and small, inland and coastal, face devastation from flooding.
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