Since 1996, Arkansas has recorded 5,547 flood events.
Those floods have caused an estimated $974 million in property and crop damage. They have killed 92 people. They have produced 10,247 NFIP flood insurance claims totaling $217 million in payouts since 1978, with the worst single year — 2011 — producing more than 1,100 claims in twelve months.
Roughly 1 in 90 Arkansas households carries flood insurance.
That gap — between how often Arkansas floods and how few Arkansans are protected when it does — is precisely the problem that $20 million in federal grant money is now available to address. And the deadline for communities to apply is August 15. Twelve days from today.
What the Grant Is — and Who Can Apply
The Arkansas Department of Agriculture is now accepting pre-applications for FEMA’s Swift Current Flood Mitigation Assistance program. The full $20 million is available for qualifying projects, funded by FEMA and administered by the state…