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Comment by cmac2992 | Hacker News Reader

The whole thing gets crazy when you realize the federal government was basically subsidizing development in these high risk flood areas. The federal flood insurance rates were not properly evaluating the risk to insure these areas. They were using older flood maps which don't account for changes in urban sprawl and global warming

https://www.vox.com/2017/8/26/16208230/hurricane-harvey-floo...

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You may be correct about the subsidies. I don't know enough about it. What I do know is a 1-3% increase in insurance premiums wouldn't have changed the behavior of home buyers here. All along I thought my house was in a 100 year flood plain (plane?). This week I found out it's not even in a 500 year flood plain.

I'm certainly no expert

My back of napkin math says they are $48k short per household.

But ya, Harvey would have been devastating regardless of past insurance policy pricing.

v interesting, from another article:

> The insurance must be bought by homeowners with federally-backed mortgages living in the most vulnerable areas, called Special Flood Hazard Zones. ... People in those areas and near them have complained for years that the premiums are too high, though they would be much higher still if not subsidized by the federal government.

So on one hand the subsidies were way too much, on the other hand it's still not enough for more (than a handful of) people to afford it.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/30/about-80-percent-of-hurrican...

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