ABSTRACT

Despite efforts to mitigate the adverse impacts of flooding across the United States, losses from both acute and chronic events continue to rise, particularly in low-lying coastal areas. From 1999 to 2009 the U.S. suffered approximately $33.5 billion in insured flood losses alone. Counties and parishes along the Gulf of Mexico coastline reported almost $21.5 billion of this total. These property damage estimates help solidify what has been generally understood for years: that floods pose a major risk to communities and with increasing development in coastal areas the problem is growing worse.