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Articles on Flood risk

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Neighborhood groups in Staten Island, N.Y., encouraged buyouts after Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images

When homes flood, who gets FEMA buyouts and where do they go? We mapped thousands of moves and found distance and race both play a role

FEMA runs the largest managed retreat program in the country, Two disaster response experts looked at the demographics of who gets those buyouts and where they go.
Mississippi River flooding left parts of Davenport, Iowa, under water in May 2023. KC McGinnis/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

America’s aging flood control infrastructure is failing – federal funding is coming, but too often new construction relies on old data

Flood risks are rising, yet communities may spend millions of dollars in federal infrastructure funding on systems that aren’t built to handle them.
Maywood Riverfront Park was built on the site of eight former industrial properties in Los Angeles County. Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Flood maps show US vastly underestimates contamination risk at old industrial sites

Climate change is colliding with old factory sites where soil or water contamination still exist, and the most vulnerable populations are particularly at risk.

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