Facts about floods
- Floods and flash floods happen in all 50 states.
- Everyone lives in a flood zone.
- Most homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage.
- If you live in a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) or high-risk area and have a Federally backed mortgage, your mortgage lender requires you to have flood insurance.
- Just an inch of water can cause costly damage to your property.
- A car can easily be carried away by just two feet of floodwater.
- Hurricanes, winter storms and snow-melt are common (but often overlooked) causes of flooding.
- New land development can increase flood risk, especially if the construction changes natural runoff paths.
- Federal disaster assistance is usually a loan that must be paid back with interest. For a $50,000 loan at 4% interest, your monthly payment would be around $240 a month ($2,880 a year) for 30 years. Compare that to a $100,000 flood insurance premium, which is about $400 a year ($33 a month).
- If you live in a moderate-to-low risk area and are eligible for the Preferred Risk Policy, your flood insurance premium may be as low as $300 a year, including coverage for your property’s contents.
- You are eligible to purchase flood insurance as long as your community participates in the National Flood Insurance Program.
- It takes 30 days after purchase for a policy to take effect (FEMA), so it’s important to buy insurance before the flood waters start to rise. However, some private insurance carriers offer waiting periods as low as 15 days! We have access to these companies and can help you today! Call us to see if you qualify.
- In a high-risk area, your home is more than twice as likely to be damaged by flood than by fire.
- Anyone can be financially vulnerable to floods. People outside of high-risk areas file over 20% of National Flood Insurance Programs (NFIP) claims and receive one-third of disaster assistance for flooding.
- The average annual U.S. flood losses in the past 10 years (2001-2010) were more than $2.7 billion and that was before 2011 which was one of the largest on record.
- Since 1978, the NFIP has paid over $36.9 billion for flood insurance claims and related costs (as of 12/31/10).
