Roswell: Half A Year Of Rain At Once
People who get 13" yearly do NOT have flood insurance.
The federal flood maps are behind the times, only covering about 50% of affected properties. Insurance is expensive and not many keep it. Places like semi-arid Roswell, New Mexico, have low areas that are known to flood during the monsoon season and people know to avoid them.
Today they received half a year of rain in one event, two dead, three hundred rescues, and when the water goes down the understanding that this is an economic disaster will come. They’re going to get in line behind the victims of Helene and Milton, and then find there are no programs that will make them whole.
We, as a society, are going to get to the place where we provide coverage for those whose homes are taken out by climate change driven fires and floods. But not this year, not the next Congress, probably not even this decade. It will have to become so pervasive that no politicians can say “Not my problem, won’t happen here.”
And in the mean time, the newly minted climate refugees get the same treatment as any other sort of refugee -a cold shoulder from those who’ve never been there.