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FEMA Is Not Effectively Administering a Program to Reduce or Eliminate Damage to Severe Repetitive Loss Properties

Submitting OIG: 
Department of Homeland Security OIG
Report Description: 
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is not adequately managing severe repetitive loss (SRL) properties covered by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). FEMA has not established an effective program to reduce or eliminate damage to SRL properties and disruption to life caused by the repeated flooding. Primarily, FEMA does not have reliable, accurate information about SRL properties. Secondly, FEMA’s Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) program, which aims to mitigate flood damage for NFIP policyholders, provides neither equitable nor timely relief for SRL applicants. We made three recommendations to FEMA to ensure the accuracy of the SRL list, as well as equitable and timely distribution of mitigation funding, and promoting the use of National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Increased Cost of Compliance coverage. FEMA concurred with all three of the recommendations
Date Issued: 
Thursday, September 3, 2020
Agency Reviewed / Investigated: 
Department of Homeland Security
Submitting OIG-Specific Report Number: 
OIG-20-68
Component, if applicable: 
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC)
Location(s): 
United States
Type of Report: 
Audit
Number of Recommendations: 
3
View Document: 
AttachmentSize
PDF icon OIG-20-68-Sep20.pdf2.6 MB
Additional Details Link: 
https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2020-09/OIG-20-68-Sep20.pdf

Related Open Recommendations

Recommendation Number Recommendation Status Significant Recommendation Additional Details
1 Open No
We recommend the Administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency devise a plan to strengthen its management of SRL properties and ensure the accuracy of the SRL list. The plan should: - assign specific roles and responsibilities to ensure cross-division integration, implementation, and monitoring of FEMA's SRL strategy; - improve its workflow tracking system to monitor all requested changes to the SRL list and capture resulting outcomes; and - evaluate alternatives for updating the SRL list apart from Form AW-501, such as permitting updates to a property's mitigation status based on submission of a proper elevation certificate.
2 Open No
We recommend the Administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency revise FEMA's approach to ensure equitable and timely distribution of mitigation funding. At a minimum, FEMA should: - devise a plan and conduct outreach to communities with a large number of SRL properties to identify and address barriers to their participation in the Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) grant program; - update regional, state, and community training to address inconsistent practices and requirements that hinder NFIP-insured participation in the FMA grant program; and - develop and implement policies and procedures to monitor and enforce grant requirements.
Displaying 2 of 2 Recommendations