The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) gives homeowners and organizations the opportunity to build in areas that otherwise would possibly be too high of a risk for the individual to take on without government assistance. With this being a taxpayer-supported program, people who choose to live in these areas are causing homeowners, who know better, money and grief. While FEMA can't control flooding, they can control flood insurance for property owners. Through a variety of facts and examples many people, including myself, have begun to question FEMA's policy on flood insurance in flood plains.
A common disaster dealt with by the Federal Emergency Management Agency could be prevented if they were to update their maps, and that is flooding. Flooding can be very destructive and there is little that can be done to prevent this. FEMA deals with all kinds of disasters, all of the time and the insurance that goes along with those. They are usually dealing with floods, because they are the most common. There is not a certain place that floods occur, but there are places where they occur more often. Along the coasts there is more water, but "flooding can occur at any time and virtually anywhere" ("Flood Insurance Seminar"). There is no way of preparing for a flood, there is really no way of preventing the damage, and there is not really a way of predicting that a flood is going to occur. The only way you can really prevent your house from being damaged is if you flood proof it. For example, my grandfather lives in Gulf Shores, Alabama. He put his house on stilts to prevent water damage, because of the repetitive flooding. There are floods everywhere. "Year in and year out, flooding is the leading cause of property loss from natural disasters in this country" ("Flood Insurance Available"). Without FEMA people would be lost and wouldn't know what to do. But also they need to stop "mop[ping] up the mess" and show people that they should not be living in flood prone areas (Paige).
