Flood Insurance Saves Billions
The National Flood Insurance Program serves to fulfill national efforts to reduce loss of life and property due to floods. By encouraging sound floodplain management efforts—identifying and mitigating long-term risks and making insurance available to hazard-risk communities—the program saves the nation approximately $1.7 billion annually in avoided flood losses.

Every Dollar Matters
For every dollar invested in mitigation strategies, the nation saves about six dollars in future costs.*
More than Just Money
Implementing hazard mitigation strategies, plus designing new buildings to exceed select building code requirements, could prevent 600 deaths, one million nonfatal injuries, and 4,000 cases of post-traumatic stress disorder in the long term. Additionally, designing new buildings to exceed select codes would result in 87,000 new, long-term jobs.*
Loss Avoidance Studies **
FEMA has conducted numerous studies on the effectiveness and value of flood and hurricane wind mitigation projects around the country. One of the many projects studied, all of which can be found here, included improvements to 64 buildings throughout Broward County, Florida, that resulted in $10,398,664 in loss avoidance and a 483 percent return on investment.
Another study concluded that mitigation projects in North Carolina that were implemented before Hurricane Matthew resulted in losses avoided from Matthew totaling between approximately $207 million and $235 million.
View stories on and examples of successful mitigation and resilience planning in coastal states, such as those in Texas, South Carolina, and Mississippi.