Sep 08

The State of Flood Insurance

The State of Flood Insurance

 

Those who live in areas hit by Hurricane Ida will next face the challenge of navigating insurance. Many standard home insurance and home-rental policies don’t cover flood insurance. Flood insurance is usually a separate policy.

About 40% to 50% of the flood damages from Hurricane Ida are covered by insurance, Tom Larsen, insurance solutions principal for CoreLogic, told MarketWatch. He says that does mark an improvement in the percentage of insured compared to other large-scale disasters like hurricanes Harvey and Katrina.

Hurricane Ida continues to batter the U.S., moving up along the Northeast causing storms and catastrophic flooding. New York saw more than three inches of rain per hour fall in Central Park from Ida, prompting flooding in the city. Ida first made landfall on the southeastern coast of Louisiana as a Category 4 storm on Aug. 29. It is tied for the fifth-strongest hurricane ever to hit the U.S. mainland.

CoreLogic has estimated about $27 billion to $40 billion in insured and uninsured losses for residential and commercial properties from Hurricane Ida. More than 90% of those losses are expected to come from Louisiana, where thousands of homes and businesses have been destroyed. Nearly 1 million homes and businesses remain without power in southeast Louisiana, as of Thursday.

“Too many people and too many areas are still unprotected and saw a storm surge and flooding that was devastating,” President Biden said in a press conference on Thursday.

A 2020 survey from Policygenius found that 53% of homeowners mistakenly believe that floods are covered under standard home insurance plans.

Homeowners with federally-backed mortgages are required to purchase flood insurance if they live in an area designated as high-risk for flooding. But renters, homeowners, and those without federally backed mortgages are not required to, as well as those who don’t live in designated high-risk areas.

Flood insurance usually costs about $700 a year, on average, with coverage through the National Flood Insurance Program, according to FEMA.

The National Association of REALTORS® offers a Disaster Preparation Resources page at nar.realtor to help real estate professionals and their clients who have been affected in the hurricane and from flooding damage to find the resources they need.

Source:
“Ida Flood Damage Won’t Be Covered by Insurance for Many Americans,” The Wall Street Journal (Sept. 2, 2021) [Log-in required.] and “CoreLogic Projects Roughly $27B to $40B in Losses From Hurricane Ida,” MarketWatch (Sept. 1, 2021)
©National Association of REALTORS®
Reprinted with permission

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