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| Home builders support sensible flood insurance The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), a premier trade group located in Washington, DC, told Congress it supports efforts to reform the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to ensure that program's long-term financial stability, but cautioned that any legislative proposals should not be an overreaction to unusual circumstances stemming from last year's devastating hurricane season. To improve the solvency of the program and its attractiveness to potential policyholders, NAHB supports the following reforms to allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the NFIP to better adapt to changes in the marketplace: * Providing FEMA the authority to allow for slightly higher annual premium increases to allow the agency to reduce its indebtedness to the federal Treasury. * Increasing coverage limits to better reflect today's home values. * Creating more insurance options to allow policyholders greater flexibility and provide additional home owner benefits while aiding program solvency. * Raising the minimum deductible for paid claims in order to provide a strong incentive for owners to protect their homes, and thereby reduce potential future losses to the NFIP. * Updating and modernizing the Flood Insurance Rate maps to eliminate large discrepancies between what was mapped as the 100-year floodplain decades ago and what the 100-year floodplain is today. The term "100-year floodplain" refers to an area that has a one percent chance of suffering a catastrophic flood in a given year. Flood insurance claims for the 2005 hurricane season are expected to top $23 billion as a result of the unprecedented damages caused last year by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, far exceeding the total amount paid out over the NFIP's 37-year existence. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Construction News :: home page |