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Prepare your family, home and business for potential severe weather this spring

Flood Insurance: An important defense against rising water

• Are you at risk for a flood? Yes!
• Think about it, and then get flood insurance!
• Prepare your family for severe weather
• Tornados: Putting safety first!
• Find out more: Flood mapping in your community
• Are you a member of the media?

Are you at risk for a flood? Yes!

Flood Insurance: A wise choice.

Did you know?

One storm; two outcomes

• Floods and flash floods happen in all 50 states.
• Everyone lives in a flood zone. (For more information, visit our Flood Zones FAQs.)
• Most homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage.
• If you live in a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) or high-risk area and have a Federally-backed mortgage, your mortgage lender requires you to have flood insurance. (To find your flood risk, fill out the Flood Risk Profile to the right.Just an inch of water can cause costly damage to your property.
• Flash floods often bring walls of water 10 to 20 feet high.
• A car can easily be carried away by just two feet of floodwater.
• Winter storms and snowmelt are common (but often overlooked) causes of flooding. New land development can increase flood risk, especially if the construction changes natural runoff paths.
• You are eligible to purchase flood insurance as long as your community participates in the National Flood Insurance Program. Check the Community Status Book to see if your community is already an NFIP partner.
• It takes 30 days after purchase for a policy to take effect, so it's important to buy insurance before the floodwaters start to rise.
• In a high-risk area, your home is more than twice as likely to be damaged by flood than by fire.
• Last year, about 25% of all claims paid by the NFIP were for policies in moderate-to-low risk communities.
• The average annual U.S. flood losses in the past 10 years (1994-2004) were more than $2.4 billion.

When your community participates in the Community Rating System (CRS), you can qualify for an insurance premium discount of up to 45%. Read more about CRS Ratings.

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Think about it, and then get flood insurance!

Floods are the most costly and frequently occuring disaster in the United States. Have you ever thought about how much a flood could cost? 

Flood insurance is available to homeowners, renters, condo owners/renters, and business owners/renters in communities that participate in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

Generally, there is a 30-day waiting period for flood insurance to become effective once the full premium has been paid.  The waiting period is waived when obtaining, increasing, extending or renewing a federally backed loan for a property. 

Flood insurance costs vary depending on how much insurance is purchased, what it covers and the property's flood risk. The good news is that for many, flood insurance doesn’t have to break the bank.  Affordable rates are available throughout the country.

Flood insurance can bring peace of mind!

The cheapest flood insurance is known as a Preferred-Risk Policy, which provides coverage for anyone outside of a Special Flood Hazard Area.  These policies have low rates because they cover structures that are in low- to moderate-risk areas. Cheaper flood insurance, however does not always equate to lower flood risk.

In 2010, approximately 25 percent of all flood insurance claims were filed in low-to-moderate flood-risk areas (meaning areas outside the Special Flood Hazard Area). 

 

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Prepare your family for severe weather

Step 1: Get a Kit
Get an Emergency Supply Kit, which includes items like non-perishable food, water, a battery-powered or hand-crank radio, extra flashlights and batteries. You may want to prepare a portable kit and keep it in your car.

Step 2: Make a Plan
Prepare your family
Make a Family Emergency Plan. Your family may not be together when disaster strikes, so it is important to know how you will contact one another, how you will get back together and what you will do in case of an emergency.

Step 3: Be Informed
During emergencies, you should stay informed about the threat and have access to accurate situational awareness updates. Familiarize yourself with the difference between the weather terms "watches" and "warnings" so you can better understand your risk. Tune in to NOAA Weather Radio, commercial radio, or television for information during and after crises.

 

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Tornados: Putting safety first!

Become informed about your community's tornado warning system

• Getting underground offers the best protection from tornados. If an underground area is not available, consider: 

• Those in lightweight modular offices or mobiles are not safe during tornados and other high wind events. Those in them should locate safe rooms nearby and practice getting to them quickly. As a last resort, seek shelter in a low spot away from the home
• Conduct tornado drills
• Once in the shelter, individuals should protect their heads with their arms and crouch down

Click here and get important--often inexpensive-- mitigation tips and ideas that can be used to protect homes and businesses from disaster-related damage.

Learn more about what you can do to help protect your family and home before disaster strikes in Are You Ready? an in-depth guide to citizen preparedness.

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Find out more: Flood mapping in your community

                                                                                                                                    

What you need to know about flood mapping in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Missiouri

Get the flood map update schedule where you live!

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Are you a member of the media?

View FEMA Region VII's news media products for severe weather season 2011

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Last Modified: Wednesday, 13-Apr-2011 11:02:29 EDT