Flooding is separate from typical US home insurance and many homeowners are not adequately covered
As millions of US residents begin working to file insurance claims on their homes in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, many could be denied, particularly if their homes were damaged by flooding.
A quirk in the US home insurance market is that flood insurance is separate from typical home insurance, which usually covers wind damage from hurricanes but not flooding. Homeowners must purchase flood insurance separately if they want their homes protected against flooding.
And many don’t. In some areas where Hurricane Helene hit the hardest, less than 1% of homes had flood insurance when the storm hit. In Buncombe county in North Carolina, home to Asheville, only 0.9% of homes had flood insurance, according to data from the Insurance Information Institute.
The number of people with flood insurance in Florida, which was hit by Hurricane Milton two weeks after parts of the state were battered by Helene, is higher than in other parts of the country. But still, the take-up is low. In Sarasota county, which took a direct hit from Milton, just 23% of residents have flood insurance.
I had flood insurance for a long time, in a non-flood zone. It was cheap and it made sense since storm water sometimes runs across my back yard.
Until one day I thought we got close to needing to use it. I spoke to somebody at the insurance company and got to know my policy on my own a bit.
It doesn’t matter how bad my house might flood. A flood claim would not matter unless either a 2 acre area flooded or a neighbor’s house had a nice flood claim too.
Lot of fucking good that does for somebody with a small yard who lives on a hill! I actually got rid of the policy years ago.