Hurricane Helene is exposing the broken flood insurance system

Very few homeowners have flood insurance, and the National Flood Insurance Program is $20 billion in debt. As disasters increase, what is the solution?

Asheville, North Carolina is a mountain city more than 2,000 feet above sea level, and about 300 miles from the coast. That still didn’t protect it from flooding. Hurricane Helene poured torrential amounts of rain on the city—three-day rain totals ranged from 13 to more than 30 inches of rain. All that rain caused catastrophic flooding and a death toll that has reached at least 133 (there is not yet a monetary figure for the damages)—and in a state where most homeowners don’t have flood insurance.