The people affected by the recent Colorado floods have begun the process of rebuilding their lives as the water recedes from their homes, farms, and businesses. Many were stunned to learn their losses aren’t covered by their home owner’s policy and are wrestling with the financial implications of that news. Most people don’t know that no home insurance policy cover’s flood damage, only a flood policy does that.
The rain started falling in Colorado on Wednesday, September 11th. It rained, and rained, and continued to rain over the next several days. The rain on the 12th was particularly heavy when 4 to 6 inches of rain fell in less than a 12 hour period. In some places over 15 inches of rain fell during the multi-day storm. The creeks and streams rose and rivers overflowed their banks. According to the Colorado Division of Water Resources, water in many of the rivers and creeks had flows of over 1,000% than normal levels at the height of the flooding.
Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs, Colorado have experienced severe fires both last year and this year. In June of 2012, the Waldo Canyon fire ravaged almost 19,000 acres, killed two people, and destroyed 347 homes. The Black Forest fire that happened in June of this year torched over 14,200 acres, killed two people and destroyed 509 homes.
In case you missed it, the Biggert-Waters Flood Reform Act of 2012 (BW-12) was passed by the U.S. Congress in July of last year. The goal of BW-12 is for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, and other agencies to make changes in how the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is administered.
Hurricane season started 9 days ago on June 1 and runs for 6 months through the end of November. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting “active to extremely-active” season. Their predictions include:
?On Friday, January 25th, an earthquake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale occurred in the east Texas town of Timpson. Timpson is about 172 miles south east of Dallas. The earthquake occurred at 1:01 a.m. and was felt in east Texas, southwest Arkansas and western Louisiana. No injuries or damage were reported.
?Last Monday’s blog post was, “An introduction to flood insurance.” If you missed it, here’s the link for it http://50.87.248.161/~wiseinsu/an-introduction-to-flood-insurance/. It provides a good foundation of flood insurance. I thought I’d share some interesting tidbits of information I learned in writing that post as I always learn something in every blog I write!
There are a number of perils, types of things that can happen to your home, that aren’t covered by your home policy. The same is true for renters, condo and town home policies. One of those perils is flood. Hurricane Sandy, and even Irene from 2011 are great reminders that flooding happens. Damage to your home and even your personal property or contents is not covered if it’s lost or damaged by a flood.
?There are always an interesting set of numbers about any storm like Sandy. Here are some of the ones I thought to be interesting,
– 932 – The number of miles across / wide for the storm. This distance is about the distance from New York to Jacksonville, Florida. At its largest, Sandy would have covered almost 1/3 of the United States.
– 13.88 – The height in feet for the storm surge that occurred from the wind pushing the water that high.
As Hurricane Sandy bears down on the east coast, I’m reminded how important it is to be prepared for a natural disaster. It doesn’t have to be a hurricane that forces an evacuation. The disaster could be a flood (remember what happened in the Midwest last year), wildfires (Texas last year), hurricanes (Katrina, Ike, & Sandy), tornadoes (Joplin, Missouri & Tuscaloosa, Alabama) or an earthquake.
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