WEBVTT - America’s Flood Mitigation Math Problem 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:07.200 Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:12.080 I was out in Kerrville in Kerr County. 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:16.759 That's our reporter Kara Carlson, who's based in Texas. She's 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:19.880 been speaking with people who survived the flooding in Texas 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.520 on July fourth, and one story in particular has stayed 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:23.840 with her. 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:25.560 I have this thing. 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:29.360 About watching storms interactive maps. 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:33.000 It really struck me. She was actually up, you know, 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:35.320 watching the storm, watching a lot of the alerts and 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:37.840 was still really caught off guard in a lot of ways. 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:41.480 I was really watching where the lightning was striking because 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:42.440 it was intense. 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:43.919 It was scary. 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:44.479 It was like. 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:52.120 Really close. So I went outside and I noticed the 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:54.440 water in the driveway was like out of foot high, 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:56.480 and I thought, Oh, that's weird. 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:57.440 You'd seen that before. 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:01.520 Rina Bailey lives in Hunt, a small community by the 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:05.400 side of the Guadalupe River in Texas's Hill Country. She 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:08.120 lives in a house that was built in nineteen twenty three. 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:11.760 It's better floods many other floods. 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.920 Hunt is mostly a rural area with hills and farmland 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:19.960 and wineries, a place Kara says many Texans visit as 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:21.000 a summer getaway. 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:23.560 That's a little bit of climate in the summer than 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:25.600 a lot of other areas in Texas. It's kind of 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:27.880 an idyllic area on the river generally. 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:29.480 But some of the things that make this part of 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:34.399 Hill Country so idyllic also make it risky. They call 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:38.440 this area of Texas Flash flood Alley because the steep terrain, 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:42.640 shallow soil, and intense storms make it exceptionally prone to 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:43.560 flash floods. 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:46.160 I think what most people are thinking of when they 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:48.480 hear flash flooding is maybe stay off the roads, you know, 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.320 stay out of certain areas. They aren't necessarily expecting it 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:51.960 to come to them. 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.040 Rena was used to floods, but she was shocked to 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:57.800 see the floodwater in her driveway in the early morning 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:01.800 hours of July fourth. And then the water kept rising. 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:06.000 All of a sudden, it jumped up, and I saw 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:10.400 the Hunt stores and heard the start to de centigrade. 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:16.799 I saw the post office start to dicentigrade, the office 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:19.120 next to it, and then. 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:20.200 This wall of bar. 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.720 She saw the water sweep their truck away. Her husband 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.040 was still asleep and woken up, and my. 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:32.400 Knees saw it. It was coming up the steps like 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:36.680 there it was, and he said. 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:37.679 You have to get out of here. 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:41.040 Rina wears a back race and she says she sometimes 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:44.160 has trouble walking, so her husband helped her out through 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:47.400 a window and across their yard towards a narrow gap 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:48.080 in the fence. 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:49.679 There's a seven. 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:54.080 Foot concrete wall and there's a metal fence a gap 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.799 that line. 0:02:58.280 --> 0:02:59.920 That gap had and liten there with The. 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:05.480 Official death toll has risen to over one hundred people, 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:09.240 including dozens of children, most of whom were at Camp Mystic. 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:12.680 Over one hundred people from Kerr County are still missing. 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:17.359 The Baileys made it to higher ground. They climbed the 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:20.240 hill behind their house and headed for a log cabin 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:22.720 on their property where they could take shelter and wait 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.520 out the storm. In the wake of the floods, dozens 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:30.080 of stories like Rena's are emerging, stories of families barely 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:32.800 managing to evade danger, who were woken up in the 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:35.680 middle of the night by thunder, or by their dogs barking, 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:40.280 or by their neighbors, but not by an official warning system. 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:44.280 These accounts are raising questions about why Kerr County residents 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.560 were caught so off guard and what, if anything, could 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:49.400 have been done to save more lives. 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:51.720 Should there have been a slightly different alert, Should the 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:54.760 campgrounds maybe have been evacuated sooner? You know, there's a 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:57.200 lot of unanswered questions that are still being looked. 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:01.280 Into, questions that have repercussions far beyond Kirk County as 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:05.200 storms become more intense, more deadly, and more frequent due 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:11.200 to climate change. I'm Sarah Holder, and this is the 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.320 big take from Bloomberg News today on the show What 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.520 the Floods in Texas reveal about the growing risk of 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:21.200 flash floods as the climate changes, and the difficult economic 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:25.039 choices facing communities that are grappling with these new risks. 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:31.839 Flooding is the most expensive natural disaster we face. 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.640 Joshua Sachs is the director of the Adaptation program at 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:37.120 the Georgetown Climate Center. 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:41.640 And it can destroy communities. It not only impacts loss 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:46.680 of life, but someone's home traditionally is their majority of 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:47.280 their wealth. 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:52.320 As we have warmer temperatures, the atmosphere can hold more water, 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:55.039 more moisture, and so then when you have these storms, 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:56.479 they are able to dump more rain. 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:00.320 Zara here g covers climate for Bloomberg and there's a 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:03.599 lot of time thinking about how our understanding of risk 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:06.000 is currently evolving in a warming world. 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:08.240 So Texas is actually a state that has a ton 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:11.000 of resources. It has one of the best emergency response 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.320 kind of offices and teams and capabilities in the country. 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:16.320 Most states are not like Texas. 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.600 Zara says, Texas is the gold standard when it comes 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:24.560 to its emergency response capabilities, but it also faces a 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:29.160 wide variety of disaster risks, from hurricanes to extreme heat, 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:31.600 and even if it has a lot of money to 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:35.680 spend on disaster response, it faces difficult choices about how 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:39.360 to spend it, and on the ground, localities face their 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:42.920 own budgetary trade offs. We know, for example, that Kirk 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:46.600 County considered installing a warning system that could have involved 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:50.000 sirens in high risk areas, but it didn't. 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:53.520 We have heard from officials in Texas that one of 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:56.839 the reasons why they had not built a flood detection 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:00.719 warning system in this area, saying care ca where some 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:03.400 of the worst fooding was, is because of the cost. 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:04.520 Right. 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:08.440 So it was Care County Judge Rob Kelly who told 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:11.479 The New York Times that local residents whose taxes wound 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:14.080 up to fund such a system bocked at it. 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:17.320 How much does it cost to develop a really effective 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:21.480 early warning system for these emergencies. 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:24.040 I think it depends on the community and the type 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:26.640 of warning and the type of area that you're trying 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:31.240 to cover. But obviously it's an expense, and every local 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:34.040 government and state government has a lot of things on 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:38.320 their plate, and I'll say mitigation often falls to the 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:39.000 bottom of that. 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:44.440 There are traditionally federal grant programs that communities or individuals can. 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:46.800 Apply for Joshua sax Agon, like. 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:50.440 Putting their homes higher up or elevating their homes, or 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:56.280 elevating air conditioners, water heaters, things like that. Sometimes there 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:59.400 are state grants, but for the most part, people and 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:02.520 community are having to ask the government for money, and 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:05.919 there isn't nearly enough money to go around to solve 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:07.120 all the problems we're. 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:10.800 Facing, Zara says. At this point, federal government funding has 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:14.880 become more and more integral to emergency management efforts. 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:17.760 And it really speaks to what's at stake if the 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.720 Trump administration kind of pulls back on this funding. Earlier 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.040 this year, there are a couple of times when the 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:29.080 Trump administration paused a huge number of federal grants specifically FEMA, 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:32.480 and these are grants that are tied to this mitigation, 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:34.400 this resiliency, this prep. 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:39.400 All of this worsening storms. The challenges and costs of 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:43.119 investing in better infrastructure has also made the predictive data 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:46.120 we get from the National Weather Service even more critical. 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:50.320 The service is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:54.160 They're the ones that track environmental disasters and put out 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:55.960 weather advisories and warnings. 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:01.320 NOAH has our responsibility, especially through the National Weather Service, 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:06.280 to put out a series of, one would say, progressively 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:09.720 more action oriented messages. 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:13.440 Rick Spinrad served as the head of NOAH until January 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:17.760 of this year. He says those action oriented messages include 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:20.160 the watches and warnings you get on your phone or 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:23.520 in weather apps. A floodwatch did go out for Kerrville 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:26.760 for the Guadalupe River at one eighteen pm local time 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:30.320 on July third, and a flash flood warning signaling that 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:34.040 the hazardous weather event is imminent or already happening went 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:38.480 out about twelve hours later. It was tagged considerable, meaning 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:42.760 it automatically triggered wireless emergency alerts on mobile devices. 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:47.360 That particular warning included phrases that this was going to 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:52.720 be a considerable and catastrophic event. That is the queue 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:58.520 to emergency managers to start getting people to evacuate, to 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:05.360 start preposition materials and personnel and equipment needed to protect 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:10.320 people from the event. The most perfect forecast is only 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:14.400 as good as how it is implemented by the ones 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:15.440 who need to use it. 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:19.240 To make sure these forecasts reach the local officials in 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:23.239 charge of making public safety decisions, there are warning coordination 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:26.120 Meteorologists or wcns. 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:30.240 At WCN doesn't wait for the phone to ring, but 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.480 actually gets out there and begins the discussion and ensures 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:38.000 that all of the sheriff's offices and rescue companies and 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:42.679 emergency managers are online with him or her. They know 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:46.240 the nature of the alert that went out, and they 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:48.520 are there to tell them what they think is going 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:52.280 to happen with respect to the river levels increased precipitation. 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:54.120 When that kind of thing, it's. 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:56.520 Too early to know exactly what might have made a 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:59.880 difference for the flood victims. There are still questions about 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:04.800 how local officials responded, and reporting is ongoing, but there 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:07.960 was no WCM in the forecast office for the area 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:11.120 that flooded. He left his position in April. He took 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:14.400 an early retirement offered by the Trump administration as it 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:16.800 moved to cut Noah's staff and its budget. 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:22.120 It's disturbing to know that in the San Antonio Austin WFO, 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:26.920 the WCM position is vacant because that person left the 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:30.520 agency as a result of the cuts, and I would 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:35.600 say coerced retirements that the administration put on the Weather Service. 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:40.199 The legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:44.120 Tom Faye, told NBC News that while the San Antonio 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:47.319 Weather Forecasting Office did have vacancies in two of its 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:50.960 top positions, it was down a WCM and a permanent 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:55.200 science officer. The offices in the area had quote adequate 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.199 staffing and resources to respond to this event. 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.319 Happened in Texas. Is that happened in the middle of 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:04.560 the night, and it happened in an area that doesn't 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:07.920 have great or extensive cell coverage. 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:09.960 My colleague Zara Kirgee. 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:13.000 Again, so even if warnings had gone out and alert 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:15.880 had gone out to people's phones, maybe they didn't get 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.000 it and they didn't hear it. And you can imagine 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:21.920 if there was a siren that went off. That is 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:25.000 something that someone who is camping would have noticed, verses 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:27.199 a buzz on their phone if that buzz ever happened. 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:33.320 At a press conference on Tuesday, four days after the disaster, 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:37.760 as rescue and recovery efforts were underway, Governor Greg Abbott 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:41.320 wasn't inclined to discuss what, if anything, he believes went 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:43.800 wrong in preparing Kirk County for this flood. 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:44.760 Who's to blame? 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:46.120 Know this? 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:51.560 That's the word choice of losers. Let me explain one 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:56.520 thing about Texas, and that is Texas. Every sport entered 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:03.040 our state cares about football. It could be a hunt Texas, Huntsville, Texas, Houston, Texas, 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:06.400 any size community, they care about football and know this. 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:11.240 Every football team makes mistakes. The losing teams are the 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:14.280 ones that try to point out who's to blame. The 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.760 championship teams are the ones to say, don't worry about it, man, 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:19.800 we got this. We're going to make sure that we 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:22.000 go score again, that we're going to win this game. 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:26.040 Texas officials say. The state legislature is planning a special 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:30.000 session later this month to discuss flood warning systems, flood 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:35.560 emergency communications, and natural disaster preparedness. They'll also consider relief 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:40.040 funding for the Hill country. So what communities are most 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:43.079 vulnerable to flooding in the US and what can they 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:54.079 do to protect themselves that's after the break. One of 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:56.920 the main tools that communities in the US have to 0:12:57.120 --> 0:13:00.400 understand their flood risk are maps made by FEMA, the 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:05.280 Federal Emergency Management Agency. In twenty nineteen, FEMA estimated that 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:08.720 over eight million properties are at risk for severe flooding 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:11.720 from what's known as a once and one hundred flooding event. 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:16.080 My colleagues Area here Ge says those maps are used 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:20.320 for everything from emergency planning to calculating flood insurance premiums 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:23.960 for millions of people all across the country, but calculating 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.839 the true level of risk out there is complicated. 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:29.800 One of the things that's changing with klindate change is 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:33.679 places that haven't even flooded historically, like places in Kentucky, 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:37.280 have experienced flooding that they never even thought was possible, 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:40.880 And so you know, you're having more places effectively become 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:41.720 like Carre County. 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:45.960 Updating these maps to match our evolving climate is possible, 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:50.120 but it takes investment in technology and research. Some private 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:54.079 companies like First Treet, which does climate risk financial modeling, 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:57.720 have more up to date flood maps. In twenty twenty, 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:01.719 First Street released a report identifying nearly six million additional 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:04.840 properties nationwide that we're at the level of risk that 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:09.360 FEMA considers severe, a total of fourteen point six million. 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:13.280 It is rarely a surprise when a flood hits a place. 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:16.439 That's Joshua Sachs from the Georgetown Climate Center. 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:19.720 Again, the issue is simply, when are we going to 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:22.000 start as a country to act on these things. When 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:23.840 are we going to take this knowledge and build it 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:28.280 into public policy to address these climate impacts. To make 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:32.200 ourselves safer is going to cost an inordinate amount of 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:37.440 money and require some levels of personal sacrifice. Some people 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:39.440 who may not want to move are going to have 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:43.480 to move. Some road segments that flood regularly might have 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:47.120 to be abandoned, and these are not popular choices. 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:52.240 That's because those individual sacrifices can also have consequences for 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:53.280 the whole community. 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:57.800 A locality cares about its property value. If they encourage 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:01.040 people to move out of beachfront proper, they might be 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:06.440 hurting their own revenue. Or there are other people who 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:09.600 live in flood prone areas who simply can't afford to 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:13.120 go somewhere else. Their home is their only asset, and 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:16.080 until the government or someone decides to step in and 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:20.400 help them, they're stuck. Every time you see communities try 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:24.240 to adopt new flood maps and higher flood standards, there 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:26.680 is always at least a part of the community that 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:27.680 fights against it. 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:31.840 If a vulnerable community does acknowledge its risk and encourages 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.480 people to relocate en mass, that can drive down housing 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:38.520 prices and risk your areas and drive up demand and 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:41.760 safer ones. And for those who stay, it can become 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:44.840 more costly and more difficult to get insurance. 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:48.280 We can see this if we look at places like 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:51.400 the outer banks in the Carolinas and how homes are 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:54.200 falling into the ocean. We can see this if we 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:57.960 look into what people call the insurance crisis of how 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:02.280 insurers are pulling out of homeowner insurance because they're finding 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:04.760 the risk is too severe to cover. 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:08.440 This has put pressure on the federal government itself to 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:12.560 offer flood insurance. That's the program Zara was talking about earlier. 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:17.160 Congress created the Federal Food Insurance Program in nineteen sixty eight. 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:22.440 Basically because the private insurance for flooded risk failed and 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:26.400 private insurance pulled out of that hazard. They said we're 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:29.200 not going to cover this anymore because they didn't feel 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:33.360 like they could price policies affordably enough for most of 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:37.520 the homeowners who are in that area of risk. And 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:42.920 we've seen federal food insurance rates go up because turns 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:44.960 out the risk is really high. And one of the 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:47.680 problems is there've been so much flooding and so they've 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:51.280 had to make so many payouts that they've run out 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:53.320 of money and they keep having to go to Congress 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:56.320 and say we need more money. So it's not a 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:59.080 sustainable program, and you could sort of understand how and 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:01.400 why the insurance market got out of it. 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:05.119 There are ways to reduce those risks, which brings us 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:10.040 back to mitigation. Zara says. Research shows spending more upfront 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:13.399 money on mitigation turns out to be significantly cheaper in 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:14.119 the long run. 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.480 In twenty nineteen, there was a report that was partially 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:22.560 funded by FEMA and the federal government looking specifically at mitigation. 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:27.080 It's called the Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves twenty nineteen Report. 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:32.440 And it had found that every one dollar in federal 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:37.359 grant money spent on hazard mitigation saves six dollars in 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:39.240 disaster damages in the future. 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:42.120 The cost of cleaning up a disaster like the flooding 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:46.280 in central Texas can be staggering. A preliminary estimate from 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:49.600 acieather Ink puts the total damage and economic loss from 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.639 the floods in Texas in a range of eighteen billion 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:55.360 dollars to twenty two billion dollars, and. 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:58.359 More than that, the return on investment is even higher 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:02.159 for federal grant spending on riverine flooding mitigation. So I'm 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:05.600 talking about the mitigation that would specifically go towards helping 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:08.639 or preventing the type of event we saw in Texas. 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:12.320 And so in that case, by granting eleven point five 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:16.439 billion dollars to help states build up river defenses between 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:20.439 nineteen ninety three to twenty sixteen, the federal government and 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:25.920 society at large avoided eighty two billion in losses from 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:31.480 deaths from likely flooded damage from business disruptions associated with 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:34.280 the flood. So is the study author. One of the 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:38.680 study authors of that report told me mitigation or preparedness 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:42.440 saves lives, and he didn't say this, but what's clear 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:47.640 is it also very much saves money. 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:52.280 This is the Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder. 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:55.760 The show is hosted by Me, David Gura, Wanha and 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:59.800 Salam Mosen. The show is made by Aaron Edwards, David Fox, 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:05.320 Eleanor Harrison Dengate, Patti Hirsch, Rachel Lewis, Krisky, Naomi Julia Press, 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:10.800 Tracy Samuelson, Naomi Shaven, alex Ugia, Julia Weaver, Yang Yong, 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:14.080 and Taka Yasuzawa. To get more from the Big Take 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:17.520 and unlimited access to all of Bloomberg dot com, subscribe 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:22.280 today at Bloomberg dot com Slash Podcast Offer. Thanks for listening. 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:27.600 We'll be back on Monday.