On February 6, a bill was introduced by Rep. Earl Blumenauer and David Kustoff, along with Ben McAdams and Ann Wagner in order to address repetitive-loss properties from flood and ways to mitigate those areas. The bill, called the Repeatedly Flooded Communities Preparation Act, amends the original 1968 Flood Act by adding definitions, requirements for communities covered by flood insurance, outlines how plans can be incorporated into existing plans, outlines assistance available to communities, lists sanctions for noncompliance, and adds reports required to be made to Congress.

The term "covered community" is defined as a community participating in the National Flood Insurance program and falls into one of three categories. The first is properties with no fewer than fifty repetitive loss structures each of which, during any ten-year period, have had no fewer than two claims for payments under flood insurance for a total of more than $1,000. The second criteria is properties with no fewer than five repetitive loss structures for which mitigation activities meeting the required mitigation standards have not been conducted; and the last criteria is a public or private facility that has received assistance for repair, restoration, reconstruction or replacement under part of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act relating to more than one flooding event during the most recent ten-year period. The definitions of private nonprofit facility, public facility and severe repetitive loss structure are found in various sections of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. The Stafford Act is designed to allow the Federal Government to bring an orderly and ongoing way of assisting state and local governments to respond to natural disasters to provide aid to residents to alleviate suffering and damage caused by such disasters.

The bill outlines six requirements for covered communities. The first is that the community must determine the areas where flood-damaged facilities are located in order to identify areas that are repeatedly damaged by floods. Next, those areas must be assessed as to the continuing risks of flood, and the community must develop a community-specific plan to mitigate continuing flood risks to those repeatedly damaged areas so identified. The plan and any updates must be submitted to the Administrator at appropriate intervals. Once a plan has been developed, it must be implemented as described and be made available to the public as outlined in the United States Code.

These plans may be incorporated into existing plans the community has that were developed under existing sections of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act.

In order to assist covered communities, the Administrator shall, upon request, provide the community with data regarding the addresses and dates of claims associated with properties within the community. When considering financial assistance to these communities, the Administrator may consider to what extent the community has complied with this section of the Act and is working to remedy problems with respect to repeatedly flooded areas. The goal is to work with communities to prevent these repetitive flooding occurrences; communities working to do so may receive financial assistance for such.

Conversely, communities that do not comply with these regulations or do not make sufficient progress in reducing flood risks in repeatedly flooded areas may be sanctioned. Sanctions may include suspension or probation from the National Flood Insurance Program as outlined in the regulations. However, before sanctions are imposed, the Administrator will provide the community notice that it is in violation and may be subject to sanctions. This notice will include recommendations for actions that the community may take to come into compliance with the program. 

When considering sanctions, the Administrator shall take into consideration resources available to the community such as any Federal funding received by the community, the portion of the community that lies within areas with special flood hazard areas, and any other factors that might make it difficult for the community to conduct mitigation activities for flood-prone structures.

No later than six years after the date this section is enacted the Administrator will submit a report to Congress regarding progress made by covered communities in implementing mitigation plans. A report will be made no less than once every two years thereafter. Also, no less than one year after this has been enacted the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency will issue regulations necessary to carry out all subsections of these additions to the Food Act.

Repetitively-flooded properties put a large strain on the Flood Insurance Program. While they account for only one percent of insured properties, they make up ten percent or more of filed claims. Getting control of these areas will help towards mitigating the problem of flood losses.

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