Climate Adaptation
The Rainfall Map That Can Tell You If Your Home Is Doomed
Giving every American access to flood-risk modeling could upend the way homeowners think.
Residents of Spring, Texas wait to be rescued from rising floodwaters following Hurricane Harvey on Aug. 28, 2017.
Photographer: Luke Sharrett/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
What would happen if we all had clear information about current and future flood risks to our properties?
First Street Foundation wants to answer that question. The climate and tech non-profit is building up-to-date flood maps to estimate what could happen to homes and businesses in an era of rising sea levels and more frequent, stronger storms. The New York-based foundation says the free-to-use maps are based mostly on open source data and will eventually be granular enough to cover every property in the U.S.