The extreme flooding in South Carolina “is at least the sixth so-called 1-in-1,000 year rain event in the US since 2010.” Some experts are calling the rains “unprecedented.” State officials are still in the process of assessing property damage, but they have expressed concerns that many residents did not know that they needed flood insurance.
RFF’s Roger Cooke, Carolyn Kousky, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Erwann Michel-Kerjan note that “yearly losses can be hopelessly volatile and, as such, historical averages are not good predictors of future losses.” On RFF’s blog, they examine such “fat-tailed” events and find that “extremes are getting even more extreme.” As part of RFF’s research initiative, Rethinking Risk, these experts and others are examining innovative ways to pay for such disasters, strategies to build community resilience, and techniques for quantifying the uncertainty associated with the damages and timing of such impacts. Learn more:
- Managing Extreme Events in our Rivers and Coastal Areas (video)
- Federal Disaster Aid: Reflections from Superstorm Sandy (infographic)
- A Look at How the NFIP Differs from a Private Insurance Company (blog)
RFF on the Issues connects today’s pressing news with related research and expertise at RFF.
