New York City, along with the rest of the mid-Atlantic, is seeing more extreme rainfall events that overwhelm local infrastructure and lead to localized, but often severe, flooding. These flash floods can impose myriad costs on residents from lost income when businesses are interrupted to higher commuting costs when transit is flooded to the need to muck out homes and repair flood damage.
When disasters like this strike, access to funds is crucial for covering immediate expenses. Unfortunately, low- and moderate-income (LMI) households often lack the resources to meet these urgent needs, leading to financial distress that can persist long after the disaster has passed. To help address this, a group of partners crossing sectors designed a learning-pilot that consists of an emergency assistance program, financed by a novel parametric insurance product. The project team has recently published a new report summarizing lessons from this effort. Read the report here.
