“That’s going to be the number one thing we’re working on,” she said.
The storms that recently hit California hit places like Rollingwood and other low-lying, predominantly low-income communities of color particularly hard, and few homeowners have flood insurance.
Also, while homeowners insurance may cover property damage caused by rain and wind, it rarely covers flood damage.
Despite being designated as neutral on the FEMA map, the Rollingwood area’s flood risk is labeled as “severe” in the online tool’s Risk Factors, suggesting that flooding will most likely occur at least once within the next 30 years. predicts a 99% chance of reaching a home of
Neighbor Laura Cisneros, who has lived along Rheem Creek for about 20 years, says floods surround her home about once a year, including two recent storms.
“This is really scary for me because if it keeps raining more, I might have to evacuate my house,” she said during the three-week flood earlier this month.
Kathleen Schaefer, who oversaw the creation of FEMA’s insurance map of California five years ago, said residents of unincorporated areas feel stuck because they “lack the infrastructure to deal with these storms.” says there are many things.
But atmospheric river storms are expected to bring more rain, with some forecasts predicting the Bay Area will get as much as 37% of the rain by the end of the century. Schaefer urges people in places like Rollingwood to take out flood insurance.
But the problem, she adds, is that it’s too expensive for those most vulnerable to flooding.
“California residents are already overwhelmed with housing costs,” said Schaefer, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of California, Davis.
Insurance policy prices range from hundreds to thousands of dollars per year, depending on the home’s elevation, year of construction, and distance to bodies of water.
A policy in the Rollingwood area can cost anywhere from $700 to $800 a year, Schaefer said.
Of the more than 60,000 people living in zip code 94806 (which includes Rollingwood and several other unincorporated communities, as well as parts of San Pablo and Richmond), only about 300 homeowners have flood insurance. I’m here. Many of the residents are renters, but the low number of policyholders here means that thousands of homeowners have little protection from flood damage.
People of color make up more than 80% of the population in this zip code and have a median household income of about $74,000.
Schaeffer said flood insurance needs to be made more affordable and accessible to low-income communities as climate change-induced storms intensify.
“One solution is a community-based insurance program, which is cheaper and provides more protection,” said Schaefer, who is piloting the model.
For a program like this to work, she says, government agencies (counties or very local assessment districts) need to be directly involved. The homeowner pays her agency a discounted premium and receives a set amount when a trigger her event such as a flood occurs.
“It’s pre-determined, and home owners will know they’re going to be in a storm. If anything happens, they’ll at least have the money to have a safe and warm place.” will,” she said.
Schaefer’s proposed plan also allows for higher or more traditional coverage tiers, but capped at 1% of household income.
“With San Pablo, for example, insurance is anything you can buy for $520 a year,” she said. In contrast, some San Pablo residents pay three times as much as she does, according to the site Policygenius.
Schaefer also hopes that insurers, local governments and community members will work together to implement long-term solutions such as adding filtration basins, adding storm drains and rehabilitating badly eroded streams. .
Several local flood mitigation projects in the region are already underway, including a $1.6 million state-funded initiative.
“Right now the creek floods a few times a year, but after this project we hope it will only flood every five to 10 years,” said one of the nonprofits leading the initiative. said Anne Bremirez, Program Director of The Watershed Project.
But Cisneros, who can’t afford flood insurance, finds it hard to believe the project will be effective enough to protect his family.
“They told us many times [they’d fix the flooding issues]” she said, adding that if the creek continues to flood, she might consider relocating to higher ground.
“I want to see when it’s done. I can’t believe it’s not.”
