While we have complaints about inadequate appraisals and underpayments to our clients recovering from the Great Flood of 2016, we know that the National Flood Insurance Program is a critical component of this — and future — recoveries in Louisiana and elsewhere. It is critical that homeowners who do the right thing and pay premiums receive the full benefit of that bargain when the flood waters come. And it is likewise critical that premiums be set at fair and affordable rates.
But given the recent catastrophes that the NFIP has had to fund since Hurricane Katrina, the program is deeply in debt and a restructuring needs to occur. U. S. Representative Maxine Waters(D. California) laid out those issues in her letter today to the Advocate. Representative Waters explains how deeply in debt the program is in and offers her proposal to save it to ensure that it survives to protect future flood victims.
While we currently fight to ensure full and fair payment from flood insurance companies for victims in Louisiana, we also look to the future. Representative Waters’ letter is a must-read for those of us in Louisiana and elsewhere so that appropriate actions can be taken to save this critical government program.