Flood Insurance Moves Towards Private Market & Your April Water Update

Here are the latest news stories in local and national water policy to watch for in April. A huge congratulations to the winners of the 2018 Water Challenge presented by the Greater New Orleans Foundation!

This year’s competitors brought an array of ideas to tackle inequities in New Orleans’ urban water management, coastal erosion, and maritime industries.

The first place prize of $10,000 went to Water Block, an online tool that allows community members to determine the best location for stormwater management practices to be implemented in their neighborhood at the block level. Water Block is a project of Design Jones, LLC in partnership with Atianna Cordova and Kristen Lonon. The project seeks to correct imbalances between community input and government action by aggregating and backing community arguments with data, while also highlighting the importance of increased representation and input from people of color throughout the process.

The competition also awarded $2,500 to New Orleans Stormwater Training Corps (NOSTC), and $2,500 to Native Roots Nursery. Read more in the Times-Picayune.

In The News

Flood Insurance Extended until July, Move Towards Private Market 
Source: The Advocate, Politico, FEMA
The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) received a fourth short-term extension, this time until July 31, 2018, as part of Congress’s federal spending package (which also included increased funding for flood-risk mapping and pre-disaster mitigation). The deadline for overhauling the NFIP now comes in the middle of hurricane season, putting added pressure on lawmakers since failure to reauthorize could allow a lapse in renewing or issuing new flood insurance policies and could cause problems processing new claims.  Meanwhile, the Trump administration has bypassed Congress in making some reforms to the NFIP, including loosening restrictions on insurance companies offering private policies. FEMA has also expanded its reinsurance purchase and announced that it is engaging the capital markets, which will further increase the role of the private markets in managing flood risk. 

FEMA Releases Strategic Plan, Removes Mention of Climate Change but Increases Focus on Pre-disaster Mitigation
Source: FEMA, NPR, NRDC
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released its 2018-2022 Strategic Plan, which is intended to provide the framework for reducing disaster losses. While FEMA’s 2014-2018 Strategic Plan stated that “scientific evidence indicates that the climate is changing and that significant economic, social, and environmental consequences can be expected” and encouraged the emergency management community to “adapt appropriately to these changing risks,” the new plan does not mention climate change, sea level rise, or extreme weather. In order to address rising disaster costs due to “rising natural hazard risk, decaying critical infrastructure, and economic pressures that limit investments in risk resilience,” the 2018-2022 plan encourages increased investments in pre-disaster mitigation, updating and enforcing building codes, and increasing insurance coverage. The increased focus on mitigation is a welcome development, and Congressional funding in the FY 2018 budget was increased to $249M for FEMA’s Pre-Disaster Mitigation grant program, $149M more than was allocated last year.

New Orleans Launches “Resilience Lab”
Source: Times-Picayune
The Water Institute of The Gulf received a $200,000 grant to launch a New Orleans-based “Resilience Lab,” in collaboration with Tulane’s ByWater Institute and Columbia University’s Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes. The initiative will be led by Jeff Hebert, former Chief Resilience Officer for the City of New Orleans. The lab will focus on research relating to coastal land loss and community adaptation in Louisiana, with a focus towards how lessons learned locally can assist other communities contending with flood risk and sea level rise. 

More Water Headlines

• New Orleans development fee proposed to address flooding
• S&WB consultant: 170 critical issues in New Orleans drainage system
• Algae bloom, possibly toxic, spreads across Lake Ponchartrain
• Corps insists 17th Street Canal levee is safe, even with seepage
• Recovery funds slow to arrive, flood victims say
• Taming the Mighty Mississippi
• Mid-Barataria Diversion permit finish line moved to 2020
• Congress pours money  into fight against Louisiana’s wetland pest
• Hotting up: how climate change could swallow Louisiana’s Tabasco island

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

• Front Yard Initiative Design Workshop| TOMORROW! April 14, 10am-11am; The Urban Conservancy is hosting a design workshop to help residents interested in removing excessive paving and improving stormwater management. RSVP
• Water Wise Workshops | April 16, 6pm-7:30pm at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church; Water Wise is hosting workshops that provide basic information about green infrastructure and step-by-step instructions for installing green infrastructure projects on your property. These include rain barrels, rain gardens, bioswales, french drains and planter boxes. REGISTER
• West Jefferson Levee District Property Tax Vote | April 28; Voters on the West Bank of Jefferson Parish will vote on whether to approve a new property tax to fund the West Jefferson Levee District, covering the levee upgrades and pump station maintenance. The Bureau of Governmental Research released a report on the ballot initiative. READ
• 6th Annual HBCU Climate Change Conference Call for Abstracts | Deadline April 30; The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Inc. in collaboration with Texas Southern University is hosting this conference, which brings together HBCU faculty, students, researchers, climate professionals and environmental justice and coastal community residents impacted by toxic facilities and severe weather events related to climate change in order to bridge the gap between theory and the experiential realities of climate change. SUBMIT
• NPC18 Data Jam around Climate Change | May 22, 10am-5pm at Propeller; The National Planning Commission is hosting a Data Jam for civic hackers and non-technical community members interested in exploring how climate change affects flooding in New Orleans and the effects on population displacement, social equity, and underserved communities. RSVP
• State of the Coast Conference | May 30 – June 1, 2018 ; An interdisciplinary conference focused on Louisiana’s coastal communities, environment, and economy, hosted by the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana in partnership with The Water Institute of the Gulf and the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana. REGISTER