Legislators: Bill to help weather financial woes of GR flooding

How to keep 86,382 good jobs in an area where flood risks have impacted the economic stability in the region is a serious problem. We came up with a creative solution to this crisis when the private “surplus” flood insurance market failed to provide adequate coverage to many businesses in the Green River Valley.

Heavy rain in the winter of 2009 created structural problems at the Howard Hanson Dam, posing a serious risk of flooding in the valley. When we toured the area, back in October, we learned there was a 1 in 3 chance of catastrophic flooding. We also discovered from business owners that private flood insurance policies had either been canceled or were not available.

Federal flood insurance won’t solve the problem

The federal government offers subsidized flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program, but the coverage limits are capped at $500,000 for a building, and $500,000 for its contents.

Those limits are not enough for businesses that own property worth millions of dollars more—and this includes many of the manufacturing equipment, distribution and pharmaceutical companies that provide jobs in the valley. These businesses have to purchase additional flood insurance above the federal maximum from private insurers. While sometimes this is not an issue, it becomes a problem for businesses located in an area prone to significant flooding. Even if businesses do manage to get surplus coverage, supplemental insurance carriers do not offer business interruption insurance and can cancel a policy at any time.  

We need action to prevent flood fears from driving these companies, and the jobs they provide, out of state.

There’s too much at stake for inaction. This is an area where 22,000 residents would have to be evacuated in the event of a flood. And this is the region’s largest manufacturing and distribution center with annual economic activity of over $22 billion. In other words, without adequate coverage in the event of a flood, every day that businesses in the Valley are forced to shut down could add up to a potential loss of $60 million. We cannot afford the staggering human and economic impacts of inaction.

We have a solution

This session we introduced companion bills (HB 2560 and SB 6240), which lay out a process to ensure that excess flood insurance coverage is available to the businesses that need it. The House version passed the Legislature and is awaiting Gov. Gregoire’s signature.

Under these bills, the Office of the Insurance Commissioner will carry out a Market Assistance Plan to help businesses find surplus flood and business interruption insurance, and evaluate to what extent the coverage is available in south King County. If it turns out that private insurers are not selling the coverage our businesses need—or that a competitive market doesn’t exist in the area—then a temporary Joint Underwriting Association (JUA) can be created.

The JUA would act as a non-profit last-resort insurance that would require insurance companies to band together to provide flood insurance coverage for up to $5 million per business in the flood plain. If there is no flood, premiums can be refunded.

Our plan is the next best step

The Army Corps of Engineers, with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, has made numerous repairs to the Howard Hanson Dam. Their work, along with one of the mildest winters in the history of Washington, has dramatically reduced the risk of flooding to a 1 in 25 chance. But the threat is expected to last up to six years, and if the next fall and winter are anything like what we went through in 2009, business owners in the area need to be adequately insured in case there is a flood.

Our plan will provide the preparation and coverage our businesses need to keep their operations—and their jobs—in the Green River Valley, where they belong.