Homes and businesses are surrounded by floodwater on March 20, 2019 in Hamburg, Iowa. Several Midwest states are battling some of the worst flooding they have experienced in decades as rain and snow melt from the recent ?bomb cyclone? has inundated rivers and streams. | Getty Images

Reformers push for updates to flood insurance, FEMA maps, and rebuilding programs as recent disasters underscore rising costs The front line of climate change policy isn?t new proposals for wind energy, mass transit, or the Green New Deal: it?s how we deal with, plan, and pay for catastrophic flooding exacerbated by changing weather patterns.
Take this year?s Midwest flooding, an historic season of rain and overflowing rivers that has impacted more than 200 million people in 25 states. Federal officials have called it ?unprecedented,? but it?s just the latest in a tremendous run of record-breaking floods and water-related damage to homes and businesses that has cost the country more than $1 trillion in today?s dollars since 1980, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). And it?s happening everywhere; a new report estimates urban flooding events have happened every 2-3 days in the U.S. for the last 25 years.
First Street Foundation
Flooding has become an increasingly larger share of the growing national price tag for natural disasters.

Currently, a constellation of acronyms and programs, most notably the National Flood Insurance...