Homeowners in the Point recognize the risk that flooding poses to their houses but largely have not insured or fortified against it, according to survey results presented to the Point Association last week.
Rep. Lauren Carson presented the findings at the association’s fall meeting at St. John’s Hall on Sept. 15. The Historic Point Neighborhood Climate Resilience and Flooding Survey was conducted in August by Carson and the association and drew 108 responses.
Forty-two percent said their property sits in a FEMA-designated flood zone, and a nearly identical share said their property had flooded at least once in the past five years. More than half, 54 percent, said climate-related flooding has increased over the past decade.
Nearly 80 percent consider long-term climate risk very or somewhat serious. But only 39 percent have made any resiliency improvements, and only 35 percent carry flood insurance.
Cost appears to be the obstacle. Seventy-seven percent reported their homeowners insurance premiums rose somewhat or significantly over the past five years, before any flood coverage is added.
“Residents are burdened with insurance costs that are already high and keep rising, so the additional costs of flood insurance — if they can get it — are not feasible for many,” said Carson, a Newport Democrat and former Point resident.
She said the results make rising insurance costs a neighborhood housing issue, and framed preservation as inseparable from the problem: 78 percent of respondents said their house predates 1900.
A majority indicated interest in future resilience planning meetings or neighborhood discussions. “Working together as a neighborhood is the best way to get the resources we need to make resilience possible,” Carson said.
Carson sits on the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee, led the House Commission on Economic Risk Due to Flooding and Sea Rise, and co-founded the Aquidneck Island Climate Caucus. She was the House sponsor of the 2021 Act on Climate.
