Flood is a big issue in many parts of the United States, and President George W Bush was well aware that you don’t mess around with a flood relief program in an election year. So last week, after many US insurance industry leaders had spoken out, he signed the Flood Insurance Reform Bill of 2004 into law. The new Act extends the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) through to September 2008, just beating its expiry date of June 30.

The US Congress created the NFIP in 1968 to address the increasing costs of taxpayer-funded disaster relief for flood victims and the increasing amount of damage caused by floods.

The program goes where insurers couldn’t, providing cover for uninsurable properties and communities. The program is also linked to flood mitigation measures. In recent years there has been more awareness of the problem of providing continuing assistance to properties which flood every time it rains heavily.