15 Million U.S. Homes Are At Risk Of Flooding — 70% Higher Than FEMA Estimates

Think the risk of your home filling up with floodwater, magnified these days by climate change, is only an issue near the coasts and rivers? New research detailing nearly every corner of the U.S. shows otherwise.

Researchers from Brooklyn-based nonprofit First Street teamed with more than 80 experts in real estate, insurance and academia to compile an unprecedented flood database extensively augmenting existing federal information.

For the first time, the general public can look up nearly every individual address nationwide to assess the risk of a property flooding as it exists today and — crucially for homeowners — how that threat is likely to change over the next 30 years.

The database already make one thing clear: Many more Americans are in danger than previously known. Some 14.6 million properties are at immediate risk of flooding nationally — 6 million more than the federal government previously calculated.

By the year 2050, that figure is projected to top 16 million, according to First Street.