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caller: host: do they get automatic blanket protection? you talked about wind damage, about rain damage, what gets parsed out against people making

their claims? guest: what they look for is what is because -- what is called rising water, is that the cause of damage? your homeowners policy does not cover flooding. if your pipes break they will cover them. if it is a rainstorm or a storm surge -- they will look at what was the cause of the flooding and it is not always easy to tell. you can have both. you can have your roof blown off by rain or your basement destroyed by flooding and then the adjusters will have to figure out how much do i pay, how much do you pay? host: our guest is with us until 10:00. if you want to ask questions, it is (202) 748-8000 for those of you in the eastern and central time zones. (202) 748-8001 for the mall and pacific time zones. perhaps you've been impacted by hurricane ian. you can call (202) 748-8002 and ask questions of our guest tom

frank. remind people what you need news is -- what e & e news. guest: we cover energy and the environment. host: when it comes to insurance companies in florida, how prepared are they to payout claims? guest: private insurers that cover wind damage, that is another story. florida has had real problems with insurance. a lot of insurers have gone out of business. the question is do they have enough money to pay the claims. there about one million people who have gone into the state run . do they have enough money, and if they do not what they can do is charge an assessment on every insurance policy in the state. if you do not have a home but

you have a car, you could be paid to cover the insurance losses. the insurance market in florida has never fully recovered from hurricane andrew in 1992. they are still seeing the aftereffects of that. a lot of insurers do not want to do business in florida. we saw a lot why last week. there is an enormous amount of damage. host: remind people about the national flood insurance program , what it provides, project lead for those in florida. guest: is run by the government and provides flood insurance coverage up to do hundred $50,000, which you may have a $7,000 home and say that will not cover it, but flooding will not cost $750,000 worth of damage. $250,000 worth of damage should be enough. it is underwritten by the federal government. host: 5 million policies as of december of last year. $1 trillion of coverage is

provided in duplex revenue from premium season surcharges. what is the physical bank condition of the program? guest: it is not good and that is no secret and so the flood insurance program has had to borrow from federal taxpayers because it does not have enough money. right now they have a claims paying capacity -- that is not bad. it should be enough. the program has never been financially sound. fema and others have been pushing congress to fix it and nothing has happened for five years. host: a $30 billion borrowing

limit and has hit about 20 billion of that? guest: 20.5. it is a $30.4 billion borrowing limit and it is already hit $20.5. that leaves $9.9 billion of borrowing and that is included in the claim paying capacity. congress could always write off the $20 billion, and there are definitely a lot of people in congress who want to do that, but some people do not, it is not so easy to get something like that few -- to gets a little like that through. host: the deadline to fund the government was covered from the flood insurance program included in that? guest: yes. is there. it has not expired. host: let's hear from kansas on with our guest tom frank. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my

call. 18% of the florida residents have flood insurance policies. we are talking about flood insurance and i appreciate that because everybody in a flood zone area needs to have it. 18% only 18% have been in florida. the question is do we subsidize repairs to homes whose owners -- or does fema say we are sorry this happened to you, but we need to have your flood insurance next time. we talk about equity. some of the equity problems that fema has is caused by congress because they write the rules that we have to follow as far as emergency management people.

item two. your gas prices are going up. you notice this, because i heard a caller a few moments ago. why the gas prices going up? opec cut production. host: we will stop and keep it to the topic he is an expert in. guest: is a great question and a great point. what you do to the people who do not have flood insurance? do you pay for them to rebuild in the same area? it is not an easy question. it is easy to sit here and say you do not have flood insurance, your home is destroyed, you have to move, but it is not so easy on the ground. what has traditionally happened is people have rebuilt where they are. sometimes they might elevate their home up on or elevate the foundation so it will not get flooded. you are asking all of the right

questions. it is an ongoing debate and you will see that debate again here. people will say enough. florida has gone an enormous amount of building on the coast in the flood zones. one of the things about hurricane ian's it hit a lot of places that are not considered flood prone areas. those are the people who will face the most trouble, those who are living in orlando or someplace where you do not think of getting storm surge or getting flooded but because en was such an unusual hurricane they will be in eight of situation. it is a great question and an ongoing debate. the answer has been we know we should not do this but we are going to rebuild anyway. host: let's hear from bill, a floridian in jacksonville. caller: thanks for the talk. i see other types of major national issues. what are the two were three

major objections congress has to not want to get something like this fully funded? we hear the same talk on immigration. if you would on that. host: when you say fully funded do you mean the flood insurance program? caller: yes. host: what keeps congress from fully funding it? guest: the problem is that to put the flood insurance on solid financial foundations, you would have to raise the insurance rates of a lot of people by a lot of money. that is something fema is in the process of saying we will raise your insurance rate to reflect the actual flood risk. if you are on the coast in florida, then your actual flood risk is quite high. what happens when people see their flood insurance rates go from $1000 to $5,000, they

complain. who do they complain to? congress. people have been getting a pre-good deal on flood insurance they buy through fema. they do not want to give up that t c-span.org. we are going to talk about hurricane recovery efforts and servings storm damage. you are watching c-span. >> we are working to get power back on and we also have a bridge situation as well as the bridge in pine island, we are airlifting lineman on to both islands to serve the damage and plan for restoration. i was in the area today, and you