The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "National Flood Insurance" ...
-
American's Neglected Levees
Scripps reviewed the federal and state level system of levee oversight and found that no one at any level of government knows where all levees are, what they protect or what shape they are in. Thousands of communities are being forced by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to get levees certified under a national upgrade of flood hazard maps, but even FEMA admits the standards are outdated and don't accurately reflect the risks to people behind them.
Tags: FEMA; levee; flood; Army Corps of Engineers; infrastructure; National Levee Safety Committee; insurance
-
Money Down the River
"This package documented how an apartment complex built in a flood plain received $10.7 million -- more than twice its assessed value -- from the National Flood Insurance Program. Basked on figures obtained through FOIA, the story detailed how the federally backed insurance program allowed Willow River Apartments to rebuild time and time again in a flood-prone area where development is no longer allowed."
Tags: FEMA; weather; rain; flood plain; flooding; water damamge; insurance; natural disaster; government spending
-
Repeat Claims Strain Federal Flood Insurance
Gaul investigates the wave of insurance claims that is sure to follow in the wake of recent hurricanes. He found that the National Flood Insurance Program will likely suffer enormous financial strain after thousands of people file their claims.
Tags: FEMA; hurricane; natural disaster; national flood insurance; federal government; property; real estate; Hurricane Katrina
-
Always Awash
In many Maryland counties, properties that get flooded are rebuilt often at the taxpayer's expense. FEMA is working on the repetitive flood losses. As this report reveals this rebuilding is mainly because the flood maps have not been updated recently.
Tags: Federal Emergency Management Agency; Hurricane Isabel; Maryland counties; National Flood Insurance; Maryland department of Environment
-
Shoreline in Peril
For years, the rich and powerful have built lavish second homes along the 75-mile Atlantic Ocean shoreline from Fire Island to the Hamptons, and for just about as long, the forces of nature have come along to eat away at what some have called one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. While building on property they own is the right of anyone who can afford it, this investigation found that to a large extent, property owners on Long Island's ocean shores were doing it at the public expense.
Tags: landowners; damage; loopholes; FOIA; federal flood insurance; Fire Island Association; National Flood Insurance Program data; Database Mapping Project
-
Flood Insurance: The Money Drain
The series "examined the workings of the National Flood Insurance Program - how a combination of poor policy choices and bureaucratic inertia led to a federally subsidized insurance program that makes little sense for taxpayers or flooded homeowners."
Tags: National Flood Insurance Program; FOIA; FEMA
-
Beachfront Bailout: Thousands of homes stand in harm's way but are sheltered by an umbrella of federal subsidies.
Common Cause Magazine reveals how the federal government props up the beachfront communities for the rich by underwriting insurance policies which no private company would touch; the policies promote risky construction and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions.
Tags: National Flood Insurance Program; Outer Banks; Currituck County; housing construction; hurricane