A local environmental group recently took a stab at this question. The answer: About $431 million, according to a new report by Norfolk-based Wetlands Watch.
That's the amount needed to elevate or purchase and demolish nearly 3,000 flood-prone homes in the region deemed "repetitive loss."
"We're saying we have to look at these costs to know how big a bill we have, and then we can plan accordingly," said Skip Stiles, the group's executive director.
Repetitive-loss homes are owned by people who have received payouts from the National Flood Insurance Program for two flood losses in any 10-year period of more than $1,000 each.
The report — The Challenge of Mitigating Virginia's Flooding and Sea Level Rise Impacts — looks at five cities in the region for which similar data was available. Hampton Roads has one of the highest rates of sea-level rise in the country.
Norfolk has the most repetitive-loss homes in the region (about 900), followed by Hampton (863), Virginia Beach (561), Chesapeake (409) and Portsmouth (186), according to the report.
The average cost to flood-proof a home in Norfolk by elevating it would be $162,500, the report said. In Virginia Beach, that number is $185,000.
The federal money the cities receive annually to address flood-prone properties — less than $1 million a year — is not nearly enough to serve the demand, the report found. For example, at the funding pace from the Federal Emergency Management Agency it will take 188 years to elevate Norfolk's 900 homes.
The report suggests exploring alternative financing methods to fix homes to avoid depressing property values and harming municipal tax bases. These could include revolving loan funds or special mortgage programs, it said.
Stiles said, "There's a lot more of an elegant solution out there than waiting 100 years for FEMA to raise your home."
©2014 The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
