Originally posted 2018-09-04 01:41:41.
Hello Survivors,
Now, you may have read this title and I guarantee I know the first thing you thought in your head. “Ha! I don’t need to carry flood insurance, my house will never flood!” Think again, bucko!
Now, you may not know this about the humble author of Survivaljunk.com. While I do this site to make a little money on the side, it’s mostly a hobby. In my regular day to day, I work as both a REALTOR helping people buy and sell residential properties in Colorado, and more recently I got into the Property and Casualty world of insurance. And can you guess what kind I specialize in? You got it – Flood insurance.
A few facts of why you should carry flood insurance
Flooding is something that people rarely think about, especially those of us who live in a drier land locked state. If you live in Miami, or Houston, for example, it might be a little more on your mind. Hurricanes and storms have gotten stronger and stronger in recent years, and with that the prevalence of flooding disasters is also on the rise. In fact, flooding is far and away the number one most common disaster both in the United States (and on the Earth in general) Even in other disasters that aren’t directly “flooding” flooding still occurs in almost 90% of all natural disasters in the US. In the year 2011, flooding damage in the United States totaled $8.4 billion. The cost of 2017’s Hurricane Harvey ALONE is estimated around $125 Billion Dollars. And unfortunately for a lot of the home owners living in Houston at the time – they had no flood insurance. This is because they weren’t “mandated” to have flood insurance from their mortgage company. I’ll explain this a bit more below.
Consequences of a flooding disaster
Flooding can have several consequences for individual homeowners and a community at large. In terms of your home, flooding can have severe damaging repercussions in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. On the surface, flooding can damage or destroy flooring, carpet, drywall, trim, electrical outlets and appliances, and create a risk of electrocution for people trying to re-enter a home after a flood. Even worse, because flood waters are universally contaminated with things such as mud, raw sewage, or chemical toxins, these entering into a home can have devastating consequences later on. Even after the flood water has receded, the contaminants left behind can cause a myriad of health problems – especially with a variety of deadly molds that can lead to serious illness or death. One of the books I reviewed by author Matthew Stein, When Technology Fails, explains how his wife was killed by mold in the home, and it is a truly horrific way to perish. Still think you don’t need to carry flood insurance?
A final scary statistic to think about is that nearly a third of all flooding related damages occur to properties that are in “low risk” zones. In flood insurance lingo, these would be known as the “X Zones” or 500 year flood plains. If your home is located in one of these X zones, your mortgage provider will not require you to purchase flood insurance, unlike if you live in an “A Zone” or 100 year flood plain.
Why everyone should carry flood insurance
While flooding may seem like a very far out event, flooding CAN happen anywhere, anytime. Here in Colorado, a heavy rain storm is enough to do it, as was evidenced in the 2013 Boulder county floods that ravished the towns of Boulder, Longmont and Lyons after a sustained heavy rain event of 3 days created a massive swelling in the mountain streams and caused both a huge amount of damage and 4 deaths.
Making matters worse is the fact that your homeowner’s insurance policy does not cover damages from flooding events. This is a different category of “peril” as it’s called in the insurance world. Your homeowners policy would cover things like a broken pipe, or your child leaving the bathtub running and the home flooding from that, but not from a flooding natural disaster. This is something that every homeowner should really consider, especially with the humongous amount of damage that a flood can cause. I do not mean to be alarmist with this article, but I do find it fascinating that many people, even those that would consider themselves preppers, do not carry this vitally important insurance. If you live in an area that even has a remote possibility of flooding events, it would behoove you to at least look into carrying flood insurance coverage for the sake of your home and family.
Obtaining Flood insurance Coverage
Luckily, there are now more choices available for purchasing flood insurance. Formerly, you could only obtain it through the NFIP (national flood insurance program) which is a part of FEMA and the federal government. In recent years, more private companies have entered the flood insurance market and can provide private flood insurance policies, often underwritten by syndicates of Lloyd’s of London. The flood insurance agency that I run is one of these private companies, and we can often give very reasonably priced policies – especially if you’re in the lower risk zones. If you’re curious and want to carry flood insurance on your home or business, you can visit my agency’s site at Saveflood.com or you can fill out the form below and I will enter you into our system to get your home a quote.
Be safe out there,
Caleb
Save Flood Insurance Agency Inc
For more information about the consequences of floods, check out this excellent PDF produced by the Government of Queensland Australia.
