Flood Insurance

Protect Yourself with Flood Insurance
 Just a few inches of water from a flood can cause tens of thousands of dollars in damage. Flood insurance is the best way to protect yourself from devastating financial loss.

Flood insurance is available to homeowners, renters, condo owners/renters, and commercial owners/renters. Costs vary depending on how much insurance is purchased, what it covers, and the property's flood risk.

All policy forms provide coverage for buildings and contents. However, you might want to discuss insuring personal property with your agent, since contents coverage is optional. Typically, there's a 30-day waiting period—from date of purchase—before your policy goes into effect. That means now is the best time to buy flood insurance.

Floods are one of the most prevalent forms of disasters in the United States. The usual homeowner's property insurance explicitly does not cover for damages that are a result of flooding. Moreover, unlike typical property insurance, flood insurance is purchased from the National Flood Insurance Program or NFIP.

The National Flood Insurance Program (http://www.floodsmart.gov), established in 1968, is a federally-sponsored program that works with local communities to provide flood insurance.

Flood insurance should not be the sole means of protection for a homeowner but rather an addition. There are many other dangers to your home such as fires, theft, accidents and so on. As such, your home should always have comprehensive property insurance.

Understanding Flood Areas
Flooding can happen anywhere, but certain areas are especially prone to serious flooding. To help communities understand their risk, flood maps (Flood Insurance Rate Maps, FIRMs) have been created to show the locations of high-risk, moderate-to-low risk, and undetermined-risk areas. Here are the definitions for each:

High-risk areas (Special Flood Hazard Area or SFHA)
High-risk areas have at least a 1% annual chance of flooding, which equates to a 26% chance of flooding over the life of a 30-year mortgage. All homeowners in these areas with mortgages from federally regulated or insured lenders are required to buy flood insurance. They are shown on the flood maps as zones labeled with the letters A or V.

Moderate-to-low risk areas (Non-Special Flood Hazard Area or NSFHA)
In moderate-to-low risk areas, the risk of being flooded is reduced, but not completely removed. These areas are outside the 1% annual flood-risk floodplain areas, so flood insurance isn’t required, but it is recommended for all property owners and renters. They are shown on flood maps as zones labeled with the letters B, C or X (or a shaded X).

Undetermined-risk areas
No flood-hazard analysis has been conducted in these areas, but a flood risk still exists. Flood insurance rates reflect the uncertainty of the flood risk. These areas are labeled with the letter D on the flood maps.