"More than half a million Californians live among waterways in low-lying towns of the Sacramento-San-Joaquin Delta, where 1,100 miles of levees made of dirt and rocks protect homes from nearby rivers. Pamela Bulahan is one of them, and she remember being 9 back in 1972, when one of those earthen barriers failed and water surged toward the town of Isleton, inundating streets."
""It was almost like a mini tidal wave," Bulahan said. The floodwaters in the small city southwest of Sacramento covered her family's yard, then poured into the house. Her parents had to take out a loan to rebuild. Today, Bulahan still lives in the same house, and she and thousands of homeowners in the region are insured against flooding thanks to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which backs policies sold by private insurers and gives her "peace of mind" that if another flood comes, she will be well covered."
"But the flood insurance program is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Trump administration says that agency is in need of a major overhaul. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem she wants to "eliminate FEMA as it exists today and streamline this bloated organization into a tool that actually benefits Americans in crisis." The flood insurance program might even be eliminated, experts say."
More than half a million Californians live among waterways in low-lying towns of the Sacramento-San-Joaquin Delta protected by about 1,100 miles of dirt-and-rock levees. A 1972 levee failure flooded Isleton and inundated homes, and the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) currently backs privately sold policies that insure thousands of homeowners. FEMA administers the NFIP, and a proposed overhaul could eliminate FEMA and the flood insurance program. About 180,000 California property owners would be directly affected. An estimated 7 million Californians live in flood-risk areas while only about 7% carry flood insurance. Homeowners fear private insurers would raise premiums and reduce coverage if federal backing disappears.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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