FLOOD02918

• County: Denver
• Community: Denver
• Stream Name: South Platte River
• Basin: South Platte
• Title: Estimation of Flood Depth-Damage Curves for Residential, Commercial and Industrial Properties in the Denver Region
• Date: 10/1/1977
• Prepared For: CWCB
• Prepared By: Wayne J. Grahm ‎(Master of Science Candidate at CSU)‎
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Educational/Technical/Reference Information

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The original intention in developing this paper was to travel to

Arlington, Virginia so that the flood claims on file at the National

Flood Insurors Association (NFIA) could be viewed and analyzed. Because

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of the conflicts and disagreements that exist between FIA and NFIA, per-

mission was not granted to the author to view the files. Perhaps, after the

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controversy subsides, or another industry group is chosen to handle the in-

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surance part of the National Flood Insurance Program, permi.ssion would be

granted to view the files. Information concerning building size and age,

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indications as to velocity and duration, location of the flooding and

types of damages are not now available in any of the reports available to

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FIA from NFIA but could be determined by looking at individual claims.

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Analyzing individual claims would be most beneficial in the establishment

of commercial depth-damage curves,

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The following analysis of FIA depth-damage curves is based upon the

author's experience working for the FIA for two and one-half years and

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upon discussions with the flood claims manager and analysis of flood claims

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on file with the local flood insurance servicing company: CNA.

The Federal Insurance Administration issued a set of depth-damage curves

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in 1970 and again in 1974 for residential and small business structures and

residential contents. The 1970 depth-damage curves were selected from early

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flood insurance studies in which FIA's contractors had to develop depth-dam-

age curves for the particular community being studied. Thus, they were not

based on actual losses (in some instances, they probably were, i,e., when

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a recent damage survey had been undertaken after a flood event) but on the

consultant's estimate of losses that would result from various depths of

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water in various types of buildings. As the number of Flood Insurance

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