This is Planet Money from NPR.

Last week, Hurricane Ida hit the Eastern U.S. hard.

It knocked out power in Louisiana for days.

It killed dozens of people and flooded tons of homes in its path.

In addition to the human cost, a hurricane like this also takes a massive financial toll,

which raises the question of, who will pay for all of this?

Owners from Louisiana to New York are clearing out flooded basements and assessing water

damage.

They're figuring out whether they need to repair or completely rebuild.

For some, the bills will be hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For those homeowners with flood insurance, that damage will be covered.

But oddly enough, it's not like all the other insurance systems that we are used to, car

insurance, health insurance, even homeowners insurance is different, where it is a private

company paying.

For nearly all homes with flood insurance, it's the federal government footing the bill.

Noah King and Nick Fountain looked into this strange setup in this story, which first ran

in 2017.

The first time Bill Pennington's house in Houston flooded, it was Memorial Day of 2015.

28 inches of rain fell and he had no idea what to do.

I'm doing a hindsight, very stupid things like putting towels by the front door to keep

the water from coming in.

And then I turn around and there's literally water bubbling up from the floor, like in

...