The recent historic flooding was part of a trend in Wisconsin over the past 45 years. Flood damage has dramatically increased in the state over that time. Why is that? How will that affect homeowners, renters, and the coffers of local, state and federal governments? Are there any solutions?
WUWM speaks with Tyler Byrnes, senior research associate with the Wisconsin Policy Forum, to find out.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Why has flood damage dramatically increased in Wisconsin since the 1990s?
One of the big overarching reasons is this the increase in these massive rainfalls again like we saw this weekend. The other reason is increasing urbanization and land use changes because you know, as people move closer together, they build roofs, they build parking lots, they build driveways. And all of these things prevent the water from soaking down into the ground and, instead, it runs off those what's called 'impervious surfaces,' runs off those surfaces, and has to go somewhere and so, [it] flows downhill and ends up pooling in places."
Who does the National Flood Insurance Program cover? Who doesn't it cover, and how can people deal with the costs of recovering if they don't have flood insurance?
It was created in large part because it's almost impossible to get private flood insurance. I don't know the reasons behind that. I think it's just that it's difficult to make it a profitable venture. But you know it's available. This was something we learned in our office. It's available to people in floodplains, which we all know about. It's also available to any property owner out there, but only about 4% of people take advantage of that.
The the process is, you get a quote just like any other insurance. The the premiums are partially subsidized by the federal government. For a median home in Wisconsin, [it costs] about $800 a year to have flood insurance, which is just above the national average.
In 2008, there was about $50 million worth of damage claims. That's not to say that there was only $50 million of damage to to private homes. It's just that was what was able to be claimed on flood insurance. For the people that have [flood insurance], it covers a significant portion of the cost to recover.
If you don't have flood insurance, there's not many private resources. And so in some, in some cases, the federal government will step in with payments for individuals when there's a national disaster declared.
READ: Gov. Evers requests FEMA support following severe floods in Milwaukee area
State and local governments generally get federal money in these types of situations to repair damage to roads, bridges, public buildings. What can we learn from past flooding incidents in Wisconsin?
For state and local governments, the the biggest chunk [of federal money] came in 2008, about $70 million that year. In 2008, all of southern Wisconsin was really impacted. I-94 between Madison and Milwaukee was was flooded out. That was closed most of the summer.
Two thousand eighteen was another big year that was associated with with these big floods and Dane and Sauk Counties. That year, we saw about $60 million in aid for flood damage. They categorize these disasters either as severe storms or floods or actually in 2005, we received a little bit of money for hurricane aid, as the remnants of Hurricane Katrina came up and flooded some parts of the state.
And so, it seems like [Wisconsin could again receive] in that neighborhood of $60 to 100 million into the state based on previous experiences, although you know, it does seem like this is potentially a larger flood than some of these previous years, maybe more concentrated than in 2008, but concentrated in a very developed part of the state where there's a lot of property, a lot of infrastructure. So it's it's tough to say exactly what the the dollar value will be, but we have received significant amounts in the past.
Cities like Milwaukee are looking to add housing, add commercial businesses. You've got that urban development you were talking about. How can these cities prepare to limit additional flooding that development could generate, especially as the risk for heavy rain incidence increases as the years goes on?
On a big stormwater management scale, Milwaukee's sewerage district has done a lot of work to address flooding. They've built concrete infrastructure, pipes and reservoirs and the deep tunnel and all these sorts of massive pieces of concrete infrastructure to manage where that water goes. They've also done a lot of work on what's, you know, an emerging field called more green infrastructure. That's purchasing land upstream so that when rain falls on that land, instead of running off and flowing into the Milwaukee River and raising the Milwaukee River level, that rain infiltrates where it falls.
The other option that local governments have is, as development happens, if you build a roof, if you build a parking lot, the water is not going to be able to sink into the into the ground there it's going to pool and and run off. Local governments can require that if you develop a vacant lot, you can say, well, 90% of the water from this lot that used to sink into this has to stay on the lot.
That means that water is not flowing downhill into the river or into somebody's basement etcetera, etcetera. And so you can impose stricter limitations on how much water has to stay on a development.
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