Insurance woes in flood-prone Yardley

Yardley Borough, with a population of just 2,400 people, has been one of the nation’s most flood prone communities. Perched along the Delaware River, the borough is emblematic of the problems that have swamped the profoundly indebted National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

Since 1978, NFIP has paid out almost $25 million for flood losses to property owners in Yardley. After years of serious flooding and brutal losses, the NFIP is $23 million in debt and is looking to Yardley and other flood-plain towns across the country to help it stay afloat through flood insurance rate increases as a result of the federal Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act.

In Yardley, the NFIP has raised flood insurance rates as much as 800 percent, in one case bumping up an annual premium of $3,000 to $27,000. At a recent news conference, State Rep. Steve Santarsiero (D-31) joined State Rep. Tina Davis (D-141), Yardley Borough engineer Jim Majewski and F. Todd Polinchock, president-elect of the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors, to call for the creation of a state flood insurance task force to find ways to lessen the impacts of radically rising rates. “Our friends, our neighbors here and across Pennsylvania have been put into an untenable position, where they are now being told that because their homes are in a floodplain that they have to get flood insurance at the same time the federal government has decided to step back from providing relief for the cost of that flood insurance,” said Santarsiero.

According to Polinchock, “The Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act provided some relief for homeowners by limiting increases for new rentals and property, but as rates continue to increase over several years we believe this will have a significant impact on property values.

We have heard countless stories of how these rate increases impede real estate sales. Realtors believe problems like this will become more commonplace. Affordable flood insurance is critical to the economic growth and development of the Commonwealth.”

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer; 6/13/15 and Yardley News; 6/14/2015