And with the recent flooding and the real potential of more catastrophic flooding events, there is an urgency, and I need to advocate for an understanding of flood insurance.
I want you to consider that every new development, housing, or commercial complex alters the natural drainage systems. Adding pavement and other compact surfaces changes how the water will flow and where it will go. We see more inland flooding with the increasing regularity and aggressiveness of storms.
Additionally, many of the nation’s dams and levees are in dire need of repair and at risk of failure. If you don’t believe this, think back to the instance of the Lake Orville dam in California. Due to the amount of rain runoff, the dam had more pressure on it than it was originally designed for, raising the lake’s level by 50 feet over a few days. In addition, the dam’s outlet created a large crater in the spillway. All this led to the governor ordering the evacuation of 180,000 residents and businesses until the dam was repaired. They could make the repairs by God’s grace, and the downpour subsided. But this instance could have been much worse, and I would be willing to bet that those 180,000 less than 14,000 might have had some kind of flood coverage. I am very optimistic, so sadly, there was probably less.
This statement is similar to the one above. You are safe from flooding if you don’t live near a river, lake, or ocean. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reports that 99% of the United States counties were impacted by flooding even between 1996 to 2019, when the study was completed. $52,000 is many’s annual incomes; this is also the average flood claim, and this number is rising with inflation. Nearly every property, you heard me right, faces the risk of flooding, even those that live inland. Anywhere it rains, water can gather, and flooding can happen.
So let’s refer back to the average claim of $52,000 without insurance, you will need to get a loan, and the loan has to be paid back with interest. That interest could be $6,878.25 if you paid off fast. In addition, add the hassle and sickening as you clean your home post flood. It is overwhelming. On average, flood insurance costs $909 annually, which is $75 a month compared to a loan payment of $621 to pay the loan in 10 years.
The last major flood was Hurricane Ida, where five boroughs had countless basements flooding, and 13 people were killed. President Biden declared an emergency that allowed homeowners to apply for up to $36,000 in federal subsidies.
This sounds great; however, the program has had many issues. In many cases, the damages and expenses were much greater, but they were only given a small part of this amount. Still forcing homeowners to get loans to complete repairs and the FEMA grants were automatically applied to the balance of the loan, which made any funding irrelevant and forced many to take any savings they had to make repairs.
If the flooding victims had purchased a flood insurance policy, they could have avoided months and possibly years of heartaches, and they tried to navigate any funds (all be it little) that they could get
In addition, government flood policies tend to be more expensive than private flood policies, so the best way to get the best price is to ask a flood need to shop for your flood insurance.
