Anyone who lives in a community that participates in the National Flood Insurance Program is eligible to purchase flood insurance. The notable exception is those homes in an area designated as a Coastal Barrier Resources System because in 1982 the United States Congress passed an act meant to discourage building in those fragile coastal areas and made flood insurance protection insurance unavailable to homes in those regions. The National Flood Insurance Program is run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Federal Insurance Administration and those communities that elect to participate must enact and adopt floodplain management ordinances in order to minimize the occurence and effects of flooding.
What does this mean to you? Well, if your community participates, and over 18,000 do; then you can begin looking for flood insurance coverage and the best place to start is with your existing homeowner’s policy. Typical homeowner’s insurance will not cover flood damage, which is (defined by FEMA):
“A flood, as defined by the National Flood Insurance Program is: “A general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of two or more acres of normally dry land area or of two or more properties (at least one of which is your property) from:
# Overflow of inland or tidal waters,
# Unusual and rapid accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any source, or
# A mudflow.”
So you will need to get this separate coverage.
Post a Comment