With Flood Risk Rising, Can Community-Based Insurance Fill a Gap?
Isleton, California, Pioneers Program for Flood Recovery and Climate Resilience
"Flood insurance is a safety net people hope never to need. But the net is full of holes, and hope is unreliable. When payments do come, they’re often too little and too late, especially for renters and lower-income communities.
Residents of the Sacramento River community of Isleton, California, are no strangers to flooding. The town has flooded five times since its founding in 1874. Now, Isleton is working with researchers at the University of California, Davis, to pioneer a new strategy: community-based flood insurance. It’s designed to provide fast, flexible dollars immediately after a flood while investing in the area’s flood and financial resilience.
Only one other, drastically different, place has tried it: New York City, with 10,000 times as many residents as Isleton’s 850. Other communities, from Pajaro, California, to New Orleans and Washington, D.C., have also expressed interest."