Some property owners without flood insurance (which mortgage lenders require of most people living in flood-plains) will get relief from a federal disaster-loan programme.

ECONOMIST: When government fails

But planning policy will always involve the balancing of economic and environmental considerations, and ministers are right to say that building on flood-plains cannot be avoided altogether.

ECONOMIST: A hard rain

Many were built on flood plains, meaning residents are stuck in a mosquito-infested open sewer after every heavy rain.

ECONOMIST: The colonias of the Mexican border

This can include clearing drains, improving storm barriers and coastal defences, or putting in place planning regulations to discourage development in high-risk areas such as flood plains.

ECONOMIST: Insuring against climate change

There are river channels and flood plains galore on the planet's surface, and even a hemisphere-wide depression that many interpret as an ocean bed.

ECONOMIST: A drought on Mars

That is, as an over-populated island we allow far too much housing to be built in flood plains and provide inadequate protection for those in flood endangered areas.

BBC: News Online