WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 2008
Floods Hit Nation's Midsection: What You Need to Know
On Wednesday,
the National Weather Service posted flood and flash flood warnings from Pennsylvania to Texas. Evacuations had taken place in parts of Arkansas, Ohio and Missouri as of Wednesday afternoon. The storm had claimed the lives of at least nine people, and hundreds more were forced from their homes.
No doubt, lots of people will be turning to flood insurance to help them piece their lives together.
Here is some background on what flood insurance covers and how to make a claim.
Story ideas:
Floods cause more economic loss to the nation than any other natural disaster.
How up-to-date are your community's flood maps? A few years ago, the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) said most of the country's flood maps were badly outdated, and that it had no money to update them. People could be moving into areas that flood, but the flood maps do not show that the area is a hazard. A shopping mall here or a parking lot there can make big changes to the way water flows during/after a storm.
I told you back in 2005 that prior to Hurricane Katrina, 30 percent of flood insurance claims came from one percent of policy holders.
The problem is [PDF], and has been for years, that a tiny percentage of people claim flood damage over and over. As long as they do not suffer more than a 50 percent loss, they don't have to move and can keep on living in the same spot and keep on filing claims. These are called repetitive loss properties.
FEMA has a program to try to do something about these properties, but the programs are fairly small ($10 million a year). You can see, just as an example,
a map of the repetitive loss claims in the Delaware Valley for the last few years. Ask your regional FEMA office for similar data related to where you live.
Floodsmart.gov offers some good resources:
- Here is an interactive tool to help you calculate the cost of a flood in your home. It is VERY cool. Keep in mind that it is based on a 900-square-foot home. That is pretty darn small.
- Flood scenarios -- Watch animated representations of how the various types of floods can impact a cross-section of neighborhoods.
- Hurricane season -- Hurricanes cause flooding, and not just on the coast. The impact of
hurricanes and tropical storms can be felt hundreds of miles inland.
- Winter flooding -- Learn how melting snow and winter weather can put your property at risk.
Posted at 6:38:57 PM
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