Sugar Land - Missouri City Edition | August 2024

Government

Median annual cost of ood insurance Flood insurance for Houston-area residents is expected to continue rising at 18% annually until each home reaches its new cost the Federal Emergency Management Agency calculated under Risk Rating 2.0. SOURCE: FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY

Number of ood insurance policies in Texas Harris County: 248,613

Current cost*

Calculated cost under Risk Rating 2.0

$1,500

Fort Bend County: 50,884 Other Texas counties: 229,835 Brazoria County: 31,688 Montgomery County: 25,660

$1,200

$900

$600

60.2% of Texas’ ood insurance policyholders live in the Houston area.

Total 586,680

$300

COMMUNITY IMPACT *AS OF AUGUST 2023 FEMA ocials say ood insurance should be top of mind $0 Brazoria County Fort Bend County Harris County Montgomery County

political subdivisions created in ood-prone areas. LIDs tax residents within the boundaries to main- tain drainage systems and levees—or embankments that prevent overow, Khokhar said. Although $89 million has been spent on ood improvement projects in the LID since Hurricane Harvey, residents within the area are still exposed to high premiums due to the ood-prone area, Khokhar said. What else? Although oods sometime result in federal disaster assistance, oods often don’t result in a declaration, Gutierrez said. “Disaster assistance from FEMA and the U.S. Small Business Administration is designed to kick- start recovery, but is not enough to restore your home to its predisaster condition or to replace your treasured household items,” Gutierrez said.

With hurricane season underway in the Atlan- tic and recovery eorts from Hurricane Beryl continuing, ood insurance should be a priority for residents, Federal Emergency Management Agency ocials said. In October 2021, FEMA released Risk Rating 2.0, a new rating system for the National Flood Insurance Program that provides federally backed home insurance for oods. The new risk rating was designed to more equitably insure homeowners for oods based on the home’s risk of ooding, Fabian Gutierrez, FEMA Region 6 public aairs specialist, said in an email. Under Risk Rating 2.0, ood insurance rates account for: • Flood frequency • Flood types such as river overow and heavy rainfall • Distance to a water source

• Property characteristics Before the new risk rating went into eect, rates were based on property elevation within zones on a ood insurance rate map, Gutierrez said. Additionally, the previous ratings didn’t account for the cost of rebuilding a home. “FEMA is now able to equitably distribute premiums across all policyholders based on home value and a property’s ood risk, and set rates that are adequate, fairer and more equitable,”

Gutierrez said. The other side

Although, not everyone agrees the Risk Rating 2.0 policy is a benet. The policy fails to take into account homes in levee districts, said Rashid Khokhar, board president of the Fort Bend County Levee Improvement District No. 2. Levee improvement districts, which are common along the Brazos River in Fort Bend County, are

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