The Nation's Responses To Flood Disasters: A Historical Account

The 1990s: Disaster Assistance Prevails 71
included preparing the Summary Report and an Executive Summary. The two
summaries were principally prepared by Jacquelyn L. Monday, who was under contract
with the Natural Hazards Center. Johnston’s untimely death delayed completion of the
assessment by about a year.
The task force published its two-volume Floodplain Management in the United
States: An Assessment Report 160 in 1992. Some of the key findings were:
• Individual Risk Awareness. Although substantial progress has been made in
increasing institutional awareness of flood risk, individual awareness falls far short of
what is needed, resulting in unwise use and development of flood hazard area.
• Migration to Water. People are attracted to riverine and coastal environments for a
variety of reasons, usually unrelated to economic necessity. In recent decades, the
annual growth rate in these areas has greatly exceeded the nation as a whole. This
has exposed property and people to unnecessary risk. However, because of
technological advances in flood warning and response, flood-related deaths are not
increasing on a per-capita basis.
• Floodplain Losses. Despite attempts to cope with the problem, the large-scale
development and modification of riverine and coastal floodplains has resulted in
increasing damages and loss of floodplain resources.
• Short-term Economic Returns. In many instances, private interests develop land to
maximize economic return without regard to long-term economic and natural
resource losses. This increases public expenditures for relief, recovery, and
corrective actions.
• Enhanced Knowledge and Technology. Institutions and individuals that deal with
floodplain problems must have a broad range of information, a variety of
technologies to deal with emerging problems, and standards to which they can refer
for guidance. Research has enhanced our knowledge and provided new and better
tools to deal with physical, biological, and social processes.
• National Flood Protection Standard. Because of avoidance of high-hazard areas
(such as riverine floodways) and changes in construction practices, most new
floodplain developments have improved flood protection. However, controls over
development within the regulatory floodplain, defined by the limits of the 1-percent
annual chance flood event, have concentrated developments just beyond these limits
or levels. Protection from the effects of greater, less frequent flooding is still needed
in those places where such flooding will cause unacceptable or catastrophic damages.
160 Floodplain Management in the United States: An Assessment Report, Volume 1, Summary Report, and Volume 2, Full Report, (Prepared for the Federal
Interagency Floodplain Management Task Force, 1992), Chapter 15.