Hurricane Beryl’s aftermath worsens Texas flooding as federal flood insurance policies decline, raising recovery costs for homeowners.

The aftermath of Hurricane Beryl has caused significant flooding in Texas, with more than 100,000 Texans having dropped federal flood insurance policies in recent years. This is likely to make it costlier to homeowners and taxpayers to recover from the storm, which hit the central coast of Texas. The number of households and businesses with federal flood policies is decreasing steadily, with Texas seeing a 17 percent decline. The Federal Emergency Management Agency sells about 90 percent of the nation’s flood policies through its National Flood Insurance Program. The drop in policies coincides with an overhaul of the program that has sharply increased premiums for millions of policyholders nationally. In Texas, the average cost of a policy is set to increase to $1,400 from $775 by the new rates, while in Louisiana, the number of federal policies has dropped to 445,000 from 510,000 in late 2021.