An Economically Meaningful and Workable System for Calculating Flood Insurance Rates

The passage of the Flood Insurance Act of 1968 [U.S. Congress, 1968] has set the stage for the inclusion of flood insurance as a viable floodplain management alternative. As of March 1969, insurance is being marketed in parts of five urban areas: Fairbanks, Alaska; New Orleans, Louisiana; Alexandria and Arlington, Virginia; Matewan, West Virginia and Baytown, Texas. The program determines rates in the following fashion. Preparatory to determining rates, three sets of information are established: 1. Profile of the 100-year flood. 2. A stage-frequency curve. 3. Depth-percent damage curves by class of structure. (At present, policies are only written for 1–4 family residences so that the number of classes is limited. Rate tables have been developed for the following classes of structures: (a) one-story, no basement; (b) two-story, no basement; (c) one-story with basement; (d) two-story with basement; and (e) tri-level.)