Many people tend to discount a flood can happen to them since they aren’t in a 50 or 100-year flood plain. But as many Houstonians can attest in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, that may not count for much!
Here are 10 little known facts about flooding & flood insurance worth knowing!
Last week I reprised a post outlining reviewing your insurance in preparation for hurricane season (it started last Friday), and I wanted to follow that up with my annual overview on flood insurance. Flooding can happen at any time, whether it’s caused by torrential rains, a sub-tropical or tropical storm, or a hurricane. Let’s plunge into the two types of flood insurance coverage, as well as what happens if you need more than the standard policy provides.
The National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP, was already in deep debt, to the tune of $24.6 billion, before Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, and Tropical Storm Nate hit our shores. Further complicating matters, the Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, is projecting a budgetary shortfall of $1.4 billion. Let’s examine what’s causing the budgetary shortfall and what the future implications are for the flood insurance program.
There are two types of commercial flood insurance, standard flood insurance, which is a FEMA administered policy and excess flood insurance. Both serve a purpose for small, medium, and large businesses and offer coverage to help get the business back up and running.
Many people refer to a major water leak as flooding. Insurance, however, defines flooding, or a flood as rising water caused by rivers, lakes & streams overflowing their banks, rising water from heavy rains, or tidal surge which enters the home. This type of water damage isn’t covered by your home insurance policy, it’s only covered by flood insurance.
Welcome to hurricane season which runs from June 1 to November 30th. It’s a great time for Texas homeowners to take a few minutes to review their home insurance keeping in mind a hurricane or named storm can impact north Texas residents as easily as it does our coastal neighbors. Let’s address two key areas of your home insurance policy to review along with two other related policies.
In August a slow moving unnamed storm system settled over Louisiana dumping up to 31.39 inches of rain over 72 hours resulting in a 1,000 year rain. Massive flooding occurred affecting 188,729 homes and 507,495 people, of which 60,000 were damaged by flood waters. It’s estimated that 78% of the homes damaged by flood waters did not have flood insurance.
One of my Houston clients called me in April. It was the morning after they’d been evacuated by boat from their home in the middle of the night as north west Houston flooded. The water eventually reached 10 feet deep in the street and topped out about 2 plus feet on the first floor of her and her husband’s home. I used that conversation to review the preparations she and her husband made in advance of the floodwaters and outline a plan of what to do when the water receded. They good news is they have flood insurance!
Last week’s home post outlined some of the questions I’ve been asked about flood insurance and the answers I’ve given (see https://wiseinsurancegroup.com/questions-answers-flood-insurance/). This week, I want to answer one more question, and that is, “Who needs flood insurance?” I don’t believe everyone needs it, however, there are some who do whose home may not even be in a flood zone.
When a massive amount of rain falls in a short period of time, flooding is inevitable. After seeing these two events, I felt it important to revisit flood insurance by answers some of the questions I’m asked by homeowners. Over the next two weeks, I’ll also answer the question of who needs flood insurance and talk about cleaning up after a flood.
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