A total of 1,370 Warwick homeowners won’t experience a lapse in their flood insurance thanks to passage of legislation last week to extend the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) through September 30, 2020.

U.S. Senator Jack Reed, a senior member of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee who helped pass the bill called the measure good news for property owners, but urged Congress to work toward a comprehensive, bipartisan, long-term reauthorization that includes improved mapping and mitigation, better protects taxpayers, and ensures ensure property owners know their flood risk and have an appropriately priced but affordable way to insure against it.

"This extension was needed to provide some certainty and stability for policy holders. But we can't just rely on short-term patches. We need a long-term fix and the best way to do that is through comprehensive reform," said Reed.

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was originally established in 1968 and is the principal provider of flood insurance across the United States. Today, there are over 5 million policyholders nationwide, including about 15,000 policies in force in Rhode Island. With 39 miles of coastline, Warwick represents nearly 10 percent of the state’s policyholders.

The Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), which runs the NFIP, is examining changes to the way it calculates flood insurance rates in 2020. Currently, rates are determined by the year property was built, its elevation, location in the 100-year floodplain, and other factors, such as whether it has vents on the foundation.

It takes 30 days for a flood insurance policy to take effect after it is purchased.

Reed is a cosponsor of the bipartisan National Flood Insurance Program Reauthorization and Reform Act, which will help reform NFIP to make the program more affordable, efficient, fair, and solvent for policyholders and taxpayers alike. The bipartisan bill includes Reed's legislation to create a state revolving loan program to help homeowners and communities finance flood mitigation projects. The bill could help save middle-class families and businesses across the Ocean State from seeing their premiums jump by thousands of dollars as the Trump Administration moves toward the adoption of a new method of calculating premiums in 2021, according to a release from Reed’s office.