![]() First Street's method finds 516,760 parcels at that level of flood risk, more than four times as many. FEMA counts just over 124,000 properties across Michigan as in Special Flood Hazard Areas, meaning they have a 1% or greater chance of flooding every year.And those all fundamentally change the risk of flooding."įirst Street also looks at rainfall-related flooding in different ways than FEMA does, and looks further away from rivers and lakes into smaller streams and tributaries and the potential for flooding around them.Īmong the First Street flood risk study's findings for Michigan: "The atmosphere is getting warmer sea surface temperatures are getting warmer. "The flood risk isn't static it's changing all the time," Eby said. How does flooding risk compare to neighboring communities?įilter the table to see the number of properties in a flood zone, defined as a 1% annual likelihood of flooding in 2020. How does that change current risk?"įirst Street, unlike FEMA, also looks at changing flood risk into the future, factoring in climate change. ![]() "What we've done that's different from that is, we say, let's take all of those past events and learn from them, but also, what was the environment like when all of those events happened, and what does the current environment look like? The current atmospheric temperature, the current sea surface temperature. "They say, 'Based on all of these events that have happened in the past, what is the likelihood of that happening again, today?' on an annualized basis. "They look historically to understand your current risk," he said. But those maps come with limitations, Eby said. has customarily meant looking at FEMA maps, designed to delineate flood risk areas for purposes of requiring those within them seeking a federally-backed mortgage to obtain flood insurance. "We did this because the data hasn't existed," said Matthew Eby, founder and executive director of First Street. In Michigan, First Street finds almost 400,000 more properties with flood risk than FEMA identifies - a big potential liability for property owners and renters, as most outside of FEMA flood zones are probably not covered by flood insurance, meaning their regular insurance wouldn't cover their losses if a flood occurred, and forcing residents to pay out of pocket for hundreds or even thousands of dollars in damages. . A nonprofit consortium of university researchers have reassessed the flood risk for every property in the nation - more than 142 million homes and properties across the contiguous U.S. - exposing a federal flood mapping system that is often either badly outdated or missing information altogether.īrooklyn-based First Street Foundation's release Monday of its flood risk data - and its modernized, more comprehensive model for assessing it - identifies 70% more properties nationwide with flood risk than the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Special Flood Hazard Areas maps.
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