A few things on our August floods and the FEMA funds heading to our state

Just over a month ago, southeastern Wisconsin was hit with record rainfall and widespread flooding. This led to numerous houses and businesses being damaged and some destroyed, some roads washed out, and the last day of the Wisconsin State Fair was cancelled.

In a matter of incredible timing, the Wisconsin Policy Forum released a breakdown of US and state flood policies within a week of the floods, and how much Wisconsinites have (or have not) needed to recover from damages caused by previous events.

Long-term changes in rainfall intensity and continued urbanization and land use changes have led to more destructive flood damage across the state and spiking damage claims. This is a key takeaway from our analysis of data from the National Flood Insurance Program, which offers subsidized coverage to property owners and renters. This federal program helps cover part of the costs associated with rebuilding after disasters like the massive flooding in Milwaukee and surrounding communities that took place on Aug. 9 and 10 as a result of near-record rainfall....

Beginning in 1997, the state has seen a series of massive flooding events that resulted in spikes in total damage claims by flood insurance policyholders, as shown in Figure 1. These surges in claims occurred without a substantial increase in the number of policies held in the state. Each of these spikes was associated with extreme rainstorms, during the worst of which more than 10 inches of rain fell over the course of a few days. These storms caused rivers and streams to overflow their banks and destroy buildings and infrastructure and caused flash floods, where water that flowed off of roofs and pavement inundated buildings, roads, and bridges built in low-lying areas. Current projections show a substantially increased likelihood of days with heavy rains over the next 20 years in most of the state, making spikes in property damage more likely to occur in the future.

Those are through claims processed by the Federal Emergency Management Administration's (FEMA) flood insurance program, and the Policy Forum mentions that some of this is mandatory in flood-prone areas, and others can buy into the program (though not many do).

Policies are managed by both FEMA and private insurance companies and require premium payments like other insurance policies, but these premiums are subsidized by the federal government. Insurance costs to policy holders vary according to the risk of flooding in a specific location, property value, and other factors. Recent efforts by FEMA have changed how premium prices are set, based on property-specific risk assessments instead of flood maps alone. As of 2023, the median flood insurance policy for a single-family home in Wisconsin cost $804 annually, just above the national average of $786.

State and federal officials visited southeast Wisconsin to make damage assessments throughout the rest of August, and Governor Evers and Wisconsin's Congressional delegation from both parties sent requests to FEMA asking President Trump to declare a disaster from the rain events in August, which would allow for more types of aid to head to Wisconsin to clean up and recover from the damage.

And while I don’t give much credit to Donald Trump and whoever works for his Administration for nearly anything, on this one, I’ll make an exception. Because FEMA officially has agreed to offer financial assistance for help Wisconsinites!

At 7:48 p.m. CT [Thursday], the Evers Administration received official notice that the Trump Administration has approved Gov. Tony Evers’ request for a major disaster declaration for counties impacted by recent severe storms and flooding, which preliminary damage estimates determined caused 1,500 residential structures to be destroyed or sustain major damage with total damage costs estimated at over $33 million, as well as more than $43 million in public sector damage throughout six Wisconsin counties….

The governor’s request to receive Public Assistance to help support emergency work and the repair or replacement of disaster-damaged facilities in Door, Grant, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington, and Waukesha Counties remains under review by the Trump Administration. Additionally, the Trump Administration is also still reviewing the governor’s request for assistance under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which helps support flood mitigation measures, such as structure acquisition/demolition, structure elevation, and storm sewer upgrades, to provide opportunities to avoid future loss of life and eliminate repetitive, expensive flood damage in these communities.

The anticipated nearly $30 million reportedly approved is the federal share of the validated damage submitted in the governor’s Individual Assistance request. Once the Individual Assistance application process starts, the actual monetary amount of benefits will be based upon eligible applications that are submitted and approved through the process.

So as of now, individual Wisconsinites can receive funds to pay for the damage to their homes and any relocation expenses that were required.

What hasn’t been approved yet by the Trump Administration is any assistance available to the state or for local governments to fix the estimated $43 million in Wisconsin roads, infrastructure and facilities damaged by the flooding. And if the Trump Admin doesn’t give any more FEMA funds, then it’ll fall to the state and those local communities to pass their own assistance package, or delay other projects as the funds for those have already gone to repair the damage from those floods.

And that might be something our State Legislature could need to go back and deal with if the Trump Administration says Individual Assistance is all we are going to get from the record rainfall and floods of August. As the Policy Forum’s report mentions, here's a way the state can step in to take care of flood-related expenses.

In addition to federal funding, the state offers two major programs that provide aid to help local governments rebuild after disasters like floods. One is specifically for roads damaged by floods, and the other is a general disaster aids appropriation through the state’s Department of Military Affairs. Aid through Military Affairs cover costs for local government repairs where federal funding is not available.

State aid to rebuild local roads after floods and other disasters is distributed through the state Department of Transportation. Cities, villages, counties, and towns can all apply for funds to repair roads or bridges destroyed by a natural disaster. Initially, this program only applied to flood damage, but that definition was expanded in 2017 to include other natural disasters. While this aid can be helpful, payments are capped at 75% of the total costs of replacing the destroyed roadway. As Figure 4 shows, state road damage aids tend to jump in response to major flooding events, while general disaster aids, which cover costs beyond road repair, don’t follow as closely with flood damage. This speaks to the impact floods can have on the state’s bridges and road network.

The amount of aid provided by these programs is typically much smaller than what is available from the federal government. For example, in 2018, when inflation-adjusted payments from the federal government totaled nearly $60 million and flood insurance claims topped $20 million, state payments through the Department of Military Affairs were only $1.8 million. While state costs for disaster aids have grown, they’re still a relatively small portion of the state’s $22.6 billion general tax revenue in 2026. However, these costs will likely grow over time, and state and federal aid do not cover all the expenses associated with damage to local infrastructure. So, state leaders may feel compelled to cover a greater share of flood-related costs as they grow with more frequent events.

If you read the Legislative Fiscal Bureau's explanation of the Wisconsin’s Disaster Damage Aids program, it mentions that the governor could transfer General Fund dollars to the Transportation Fund to pay for repairs to roads and infrastructure that exceed $1 million. But that can't happen until after July 1 of next year, so if there isn't a second FEMA disaster declaration to help the state and local governments of Wisconsin, the Legislature might want to do something to designate funds for flood-related repairs sooner than later.

So while it's great to see the homeowner assistance get approved, which will help southeastern Wisconsinites get back on their feet after this extreme weather event, there's still the question of whether more help is coming from our roads and related public works, or if state and local taxpayers will have to take up those burdens.