What’s your flood risk? Find out at FloodSmart.gov
posted by Chris Bennett in floodingFlooding is the nation’s #1 natural disaster. Are you prepared?
The recent flooding in the mid-west has drawn the nation’s attention to a disaster of epic proportions. Many who thought they were safe from the rising waters found themselves evacuating on short notice, then returning to damaged or destroyed homes.
Now more than ever I would encourage each of you to quickly look up the flood risk of your own home, then take appropriate action to prepare. Let’s start that process by checking out FloodSmart.gov.
I begin by simply entering my address on the left, then click GO to lookup my risk.
In return I am told that this property is at HIGH Risk and that I am in or near a Special Flood Area. What does that mean?
A Special Flood Area is a FEMA-identified high-risk flood zone where flood insurance is mandatory for properties - having special flood, mudflow, or flood-related erosion hazards. In other words - there’s no question I’m at high risk.
Other values that could have been returned are, for example, Zone A, a 26% chance of flooding over a 30 year period. Naturally each location will have it’s own factors in determining the risk.
Now what should you do with this information? If your risk is High, it is strongly recommended that you purchase Flood Insurance for your property and create a family disaster plan. You can learn about your insurance options at OneStorm and at FloodSmart.gov as well. If you are in a Low to Moderate risk area, it’s not safe to assume that you’re out of the woods on this one. See how many times you can count the phrase, “I was told I wasn’t in a flood zone, so I didn’t worry about it” during recent TV coverage of the mid-west floods.
The message here is not of doom and gloom, but rather of educating yourself on the hazards that surround you. I believe you’ll find the valuable information you need at FloodSmart.gov to assess what your risk is and learn how to keep safe.
I’ll leave you with a screenshot of a Flood Damage Cost Estimator on just 2 inches of water to illustrate that there’s no such thing as a “little flood.” Try the tool yourself - it gets pretty surprising if you drag the height of the water above 2 inches.
Tags: flood insurance, flood risk, flooding, floods, floodsmart.gov
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let property insurance automatically covers flood. high risk areas may have to pay a higher premium or excess but very rarely excluded or need to require additional policy.
posted on July 4th, 2008 at 10:47 am - #38I’m guessing by the UK extension to your e-mail address that you’re not referring to the US. Here flood insurance is a separate policy from your property insurance.
posted on July 4th, 2008 at 10:57 am - #39