Communities around the United States face the threat of being
underwater. This is not only a matter of rising waters reaching the
doorstep. It is also the threat of being financially underwater, owning
assets worth less than the money borrowed to obtain them. Many areas
around the country may become economically uninhabitable before they
become physically unlivable.
In Underwater, Rebecca Elliott explores how families, communities, and
governments confront problems of loss as the climate changes. She offers
the first in-depth account of the politics and social effects of the
U.S. National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which provides flood
insurance protection for virtually all homes and small businesses that
require it. In doing so, the NFIP turns the risk of flooding into an
immediate economic reality, shaping who lives on the waterfront, on what
terms, and at what cost.
Drawing on archival, interview, ethnographic, and other documentary
data, Elliott follows controversies over the NFIP from its establishment
in the 1960s to the present, from local backlash over flood maps to
Congressional debates over insurance reform. Though flood insurance is
often portrayed as a rational solution for managing risk, it has ignited
recurring fights over what is fair and valuable, what needs protecting
and what should be let go, who deserves assistance and on what terms,
and whose expectations of future losses are used to govern the present.
An incisive and comprehensive consideration of the fundamental dilemmas
of moral economy underlying insurance, Underwater sheds new light on
how Americans cope with loss as the water rises.
