FEMA Flood Maps Underestimate Real Risks: Study. Florida’s A Hot Spot.

"Flood risk, a perpetual concern in porous, low-slung South Florida, is far worse here and across the continental U.S. than now projected under Federal Emergency Management Agency flood maps used by homeowners to decide where to buy insurance, according to a new assessment.

Nearly 41 million Americans — more than three times current estimates — could face 100-year flooding, the study found. The amount of property at risk is more than double.

With about $714 billion in property located in a 100-year floodplain, Florida is a national hotspot.

The study’s authors blamed the massive miscalculation on FEMA’s patchwork of maps, which rely on local authorities to plot flood zones. The process is complicated and time consuming, and often fraught with politics. In addition, FEMA has approved maps for less than 60 percent of the U.S. Many of those local maps also use outdated information while global models use unsophisticated technology, said co-author Kris Johnson, associate director for science and planning at the Nature Conservancy, which teamed up with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the University of Bristol to conduct the review."

Jenny Staletovich reports for the Miami Herald March 14, 2018.