Flood Insurance Facts 2012

Blogging From The Desk of Alicia Lagarde-Craig

FLOOD FACTS

-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. (To find your flood risk, fill out the Flood Risk Profile.)

-Just an inch of water can cause costly damage to your property.

-Flash floods often bring walls of water 10 to 20 feet high.

-A car can easily be carried away by just two feet of floodwater.

-Hurricanes, winter storms and snowmelt 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.

-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 $129 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, so it's important to buy insurance before the floodwaters start to rise.

-In a high-risk area, a 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 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.

-When your community participates in the Community Rating System (CRS), you can qualify for an insurance premium discount of up to 45%.

-Since 1978, the NFIP has paid over $36.9 billion for flood insurance claims and related costs (as of 12/31/10).

-Over 5.5 million people currently hold flood insurance policies in more than 21,000 communities across the U.S.


Increased Cost of Compliance (ICC) - Coverage for expenses a property owner must incur, above and beyond the cost to repair the physical damage the structure actually sustained from a flooding event, to comply with mitigation requirements of state or local floodplain management ordinances or laws. Acceptable mitigation measures are elevation, flood-proofing, relocation, demolition, or any combination thereof.