How the Federal Government took over the Flood Insurance Business
By Margaret Snow
9/16/11
If you could develop a market for a product, then develop the product, and then force hundreds of thousands of people into buying the product, WOW, what a concept! Of course, in the private sector, that isn’t the way it works.
But if you were the all-powerful Federal Government, why not?
The “Federal Flood Management Program / National Flood Insurance Program”
Background
available to download via FEMA website (pdf file)
In 1968 through legislation the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 was enacted. This enabled property owners to purchase flood insurance through a Federally Backed Program. All participation in this program was strictly voluntary.
Like many Government Programs that start with the idea of helping those who need it, the program soon became a basis for passing new legislation & expanding the role of Government.
In 1973, only a few short years into the National Flood Insurance Act, legislation expanded the Flood Insurance to a mandatory status on all structures that were built in a designated flood zone and were mortgaged with a Federally Insured Lending Agency.
This legislation basically rocked along offering this federally backed insurance to those whose property was in a flood zone for 31 years. In 2004 the entire program was revised after Katrina and FEMA’s distribution of over $4 billion in Katrina relief.
FEMA was deeply indebted and it is entirely possible that legislators saw a way to build a business model that could help fund the agency. Thus the legislature passed putting the entire program under the direction of FEMA and funneling a network of fees & premiums back into FEMA’s coffers.
A complete package was put into place & a marketing campaign sold the program as “partnering with private insurance companies to provide a helpful needed product.” Flood insurance purchases were likely to increase after the natural disaster Katrina, but to generate the amount of money needed it would be necessary to mandate many more people had to buy flood insurance.
Read more here (pdf via OK-SAFE)
[Editor’s note: While this article was written in 2011, much has happened since then. Margaret Snow and some others met with our Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to brief him on matters. It may be time for an update. Margaret Snow serves as a Republican Precinct Chair is Washington County Oklahoma and works in the design field. With this article and her personal story, she has definitely uncovered and revealed information that touches many people. I believe she has provided us an example and a mode of operations of not one but many federal agencies that are actively working to strip away our individual rights and property rights at our own expense.]
More information via OK-SAFE on topic of FEMA Flood Zone ReMapping here.
Truth in Focus – America in the Balance Radio Show on Topic in archives here.
(find appropriate broadcast and then you can listen or download – shows are in date order so scroll down)
Truth in Focus Radio Show on FEMA (download to listen; right click to save target as)
FEMA Flood Zones – David McLain and Margaret Snow
08/21/2011: Guest David McLain, pastor of a church in Skiatook, OK recounts his experiences with a FEMA representative and a city official, who attempted to designate his church property as a flood zone. When asked by what authority FEMA was acting, specifically what constitutional authority he was operating under, the FEMA rep. answered that FEMA operates outside of the constitution, and is in fact international. Guest Margaret Snow, landowner in northern OK recounts how her property, which has never flooded, was designated floor zone by FEMA and how this resulted in the immediate reduction in the value of her property.
Posted by Sandra Crosnoe for Finding Gems & Sharing Them and OKGrassroots
Finding Gems and Sharing Them 