Inspector General Slams FEMA Over Repeatedly Flooded Homes

The Federal Emergency Management Agency fails to help tens of thousands of people whose homes have repeatedly flooded, according to a report by the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security.

A 2004 law requires FEMA to keep a list of homes that have repeatedly flooded, and prioritize those homes for federal assistance. But the new report finds that FEMA's list is rife with errors, and that nothing has been done to reduce the flood risk for most of the nearly 38,000 homes on the list. The Department of Homeland Security oversees FEMA.

FEMA "provides neither equitable nor timely relief" to those who own homes that have repeatedly flooded, the report states.

"These properties are really the tip of the iceberg when it comes to staring down our climate change future," says Anna Weber, a flood analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Flood risks are increasing all across the country — this isn't just a coastal problem. So, if we don't act to address the risk to properties like these, we're going to see more and more repetitively flooded properties all over the nation."