CFS Risk Assessment & Mitigation 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A repetitive loss property is defined by NFIP as a property that has received how many flood insurance claim payments over a 10-year period?
- At least 1 payment exceeding $5,000
- At least 2 payments exceeding $1,000 each (Correct answer)
- At least 3 payments of any amount
- At least 2 payments totaling more than the property value
Correct answer: At least 2 payments exceeding $1,000 each
NFIP defines a repetitive loss property as one with two or more flood insurance claim payments of more than $1,000 each within any 10-year rolling period.
Question 2: What is the primary purpose of a Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) in risk assessment?
- To set insurance premium rates for individual structures
- To delineate flood hazard areas and establish BFEs for regulatory use (Correct answer)
- To identify repetitive loss properties
- To map areas eligible for disaster declarations
Correct answer: To delineate flood hazard areas and establish BFEs for regulatory use
FIRMs officially delineate SFHAs, flood zone designations, and BFEs that communities use for floodplain management regulation and insurance rating.
Question 3: When conducting a vulnerability assessment, the term 'exposure' refers to:
- The susceptibility of a structure to flood damage given its construction type
- The presence of people, property, or systems in hazard areas (Correct answer)
- The probability of a flood event occurring
- The lack of capacity to cope with flood impacts
Correct answer: The presence of people, property, or systems in hazard areas
Exposure describes what is located in the hazard zone — the inventory of people, assets, and systems that can be affected by flooding.
Question 4: A floodway is established to:
- Provide a buffer zone for wildlife habitat
- Convey the 1% annual chance flood without raising the BFE more than a regulatory surcharge (Correct answer)
- Mark the limits of the 500-year floodplain
- Identify areas requiring mandatory flood insurance
Correct answer: Convey the 1% annual chance flood without raising the BFE more than a regulatory surcharge
The regulatory floodway is the channel and adjacent overbank areas that must be kept free of encroachments so the 1% flood can pass without causing more than the allowable surcharge rise in BFE.
Question 5: Which mitigation action type directly removes structures from flood hazard areas?
- Elevation
- Dry floodproofing
- Acquisition and demolition (Correct answer)
- Floodwall construction
Correct answer: Acquisition and demolition
Property acquisition and demolition permanently removes structures and converts the land to open space, eliminating future flood damage risk at that location.
Question 6: What does a 'depth-damage function' represent in flood loss estimation?
- The speed of floodwaters relative to structural damage
- The relationship between flood inundation depth and expected percent damage to a structure or content (Correct answer)
- The cost per foot to elevate a structure above BFE
- The duration of flooding needed to cause foundation damage
Correct answer: The relationship between flood inundation depth and expected percent damage to a structure or content
Depth-damage functions (curves) correlate flood depth at a structure with the expected percentage of value lost, used in tools like HAZUS to estimate flood losses.
Question 7: Under the Community Rating System (CRS), communities earn credits primarily by:
- Purchasing flood insurance for all public buildings
- Implementing floodplain management activities that exceed NFIP minimum requirements (Correct answer)
- Achieving zero claims on NFIP policies for 5 consecutive years
- Updating their FIRM every 5 years at their own expense
Correct answer: Implementing floodplain management activities that exceed NFIP minimum requirements
CRS credits are awarded for activities beyond NFIP minimum standards, such as higher regulatory standards, public outreach, and mapping improvements, which earn policyholders premium discounts.
CFS Risk Assessment & Mitigation 3
A repetitive loss property is defined by NFIP as a property that has received how many flood insurance claim payments over a 10-year period?