Michael Chertoff Quotes

The National Flood Insurance Program is a valuable tool in addressing the losses incurred throughout this country due to floods. It assures that businesses and families have access to affordable flood insurance that would not be available on the open market.

A property in the 100-year floodplain has a 96 percent chance of being flooded in the next hundred years without global warming. The fact that several years go by without a flood does not change that probability.

Today more than 20,000 communities participate in the National Flood Insurance Program. More than 90 insurance companies sell and service flood service insurance. There are more than four million policies covering the total of $800 billion.

You know, we lose more homes every year to flooding than we do any other event in America.

No two floods are alike.

The Peckman River Basin has frequently flooded, and for more than a generation, the towns of Little Falls and Woodland Park have faced these challenges largely on their own.

State ownership of flood control efforts will not completely eliminate the problem but can substantially reduce it.

Too many families and homes remain unnecessarily vulnerable to natural disasters like hurricanes. While mitigation will never eliminate the risk to homeowners, it could reduce loss and, in many cases, save a family's home. For every $1 spent on mitigation, $4 in post-storm cleanup and rebuilding is saved.

Being in a floodplain is like sitting down in a bathtub.

There's no such thing as a 100-year flood.

Homeowners and business owners across the country agreed to pay premiums, communities agreed to adopt building codes to mitigate flood dangers, and the Federal Government agreed to provide insurance coverage to policyholders after a disaster.

The levee system on the Mississippi River is now in a position to protect the Mississippi River Basin from flooding.

Having just one insurance provider for all flood risk in the entire country makes no sense.

Flooding is the costliest and most common cause of property damage, which is why federal flood insurance should be affordable and accessible to all.

The Hunting Bayou and Greens Bayou watersheds have experienced major flooding over the years and are crying out for investment to protect the hundreds of thousands of residents and businesses in those areas.

The answer to New Orleans's levee woes is painfully obvious: money and willpower.

You can't vote that water out of the city of New Orleans.

Flooding damage is not customary for New York, especially downstate.

New flood maps in many states have raised the estimation of flood risks along rivers, streams and oceans, adding many properties to flood zones for the first time.

People say that if you find water rising up to your ankle, that's the time to do something about it, not when it's around your neck.

The National Flood Insurance Program is a voluntary program. If a community really feels that the building insurance requirements are too burdensome, they don't have to participate.

You cannot depend on a sandbag dike to save your life. You put it up to try to save your property.

Venice, Italy, survives 365 days out of every year in water; New Orleans can survive a few days of water if it has to.

NBC News found that FEMA has redrawn maps even for properties that have repeatedly filed claims for flood losses from previous storms. At least some of the properties are on the secret 'repetitive loss list' that FEMA sends to communities to alert them to problem properties.

We cannot watch another family lose everything - risking their lives and the lives of the first responders sent to rescue them - because the flood insurance program's seal of government approval fooled them into thinking they were safe. That's more than wrong: it's immoral.