Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, some lawmakers criticized residents of New Orleans, one of the most vulnerable cities in America, for failing to buy federal flood insurance and then coming hat in hand and asking to be bailed out with federal money. Now, statistics prove that was not an accurate characterization.

Aides to Donald Powell, the Bush administration's liaison to the disaster zone, have determined that is Louisiana was a more enthusiastic participant in the National Flood Insurance Program than any other state in the nation. Two out of three New Orleanians carried flood insurance -- 67 percent -- compared with a national rate of about five percent.

This comes to light at the same time a nationwide study by the Rand Corporation found that about half of the homeowners who live in federally designated flood plains do not have flood insurance. Overall, between 50 percent and 52 percent of people who own single-family homes in flood plains carry such insurance, the study concluded. But it found that a quarter of homeowners whose federally backed mortgages require them to be insured against floods actually are not. About 60 percent of homeowners in the South and West have flood insurance, compared with 20 percent to 30 percent in the Midwest and Northeast. About one percent of Americans living outside flood zones get coverage.

New Orleans Tops in Insuring Against Floods (New Orleans Times Picayune 3/19/06)

March 21, 2006