Flood Facts

Floods are the most common natural disaster in the United States.

• Most homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage.
• Floods and flash floods happen in all 50 states.
• Just an inch of water can cause costly damage to your property.
• Hurricanes, winter storms, and snow melt are common causes of flooding.
• Roughly 25% of all flood claims paid are for policies in low- to moderate-risk areas.
• If your home is in a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA), it has a 26% chance of being damaged by a flood during the course of a 30-year mortgage, compared to a 9% chance of being damaged by a fire.
• New land development can increase flood risk, especially if the construction changes natural runoff paths.
• Federal disaster assistance after a flood is usually a loan that must be paid back with interest.

What is a flood?

The way the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and your homeowners insurance agent define floods may differ from how you might describe one-and that may have an impact on what is covered by your homeowners policy.

According to the NFIP, a flood is defined as "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 the policyholder's property) from:

• Overflow of inland or tidal waters; or
• Unusual and rapid accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any source; or
• Mudflow; or
• Collapse or subsidence of land along the shore of a lake or other body of water as a result of erosion or undermining caused by waves or currents of water exceeding the cyclical levels which results in flood, as defined above."

(Sources: FEMA publication "National Flood Insurance Program Summary of Coverage," "FEMA Mandatory Purchase Guidelines," and www.fema.gov - FloodSmart "Know the Facts")

Your Flood Risk

Everyone is in a flood zone.

Common sense would seem to suggest that the closer you are to a body of water, the higher your risk of flooding. But did you know that regardless of where you live you run the risk of flooding?

In fact, according to FEMA, properties in a high-risk flood zone have a 26% chance of flooding over the course of a 30-year mortgage, compared to a 9% chance of fire. (Source: FEMA Mandatory Purchase of Flood Insurance Guidelines September 1999)

And flooding is in no way limited to coastal areas. For example, Pennsylvania, which has no ocean coastline, paid out more than $49 million in flood insurance claim payments in 2005.

(Source: www.fema.gov - NFIP Statistics, Total Claims Paid by State)

When you think of flooding, you think of severe weather such as hurricanes and tropical storms, or rivers overflowing their banks. But some of the lesser-known, localized causes of flooding that can catch a typical homeowner off-guard include:

• blocked sewer drain on a neighborhood street
• improper landscaping drainage on a property, which can lead to accumulated water that seeps into your home
• heavy, accumulated snowmelt in areas such as the Midwest
• mudflow caused by excess rain
• flash floods in the middle of a desert
• increased "impervious cover," such as asphalt, due to construction and development that leaves less open space for the water to run off, thus creating new flood risks in urban areas
• overflow from storm drains hundreds of miles from the coast

A 100-year flood is not a flood that occurs every 100 years.

You may have been told that your property is in a "100-year-floodplain." This does not mean that your house will flood only once every one hundred years. It means that in any given year, there is actually a 1% chance or greater that this high-risk flood zone will experience flooding that equals or exceeds its boundaries.

There are, in fact, geographic areas that have sustained multiple "100-year" floods for several years in a row.

About the NFIP

Prepare. Prevent. Respond. Recover.

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is the main source of flood insurance coverage in the United States. The NFIP, managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), provides flood insurance coverage and monitors floodplain management across the country.

Why the NFIP was created

Prior to 1968, flood insurance was extremely expensive for private insurers to offer and even more difficult for homeowners to obtain. For decades, most homeowners viewed flooding only as a remote possibility and they relied on the federal government to provide disaster assistance in case that "rare event" actually happened. If federal disaster relief wasn't available, recovery costs were paid from the homeowner's pocket. Although flood-control works such as dams, levees and seawalls were built, the nation didn't see a reduction in flood losses, nor did communities implement wise building codes or strategies for new development to prevent flood damage to properties.

After a wave of flood losses in the 1960s, the U.S. Congress took action. It created the NFIP to promote community floodplain management ordinances and to offer federally-backed flood insurance.