Ah, California! The land of bikinis, Hollywood, sunny weather and great times. It’s paradise! However, being a coastal state leaves California vulnerable to flooding. That’s why it is important for you, the homeowner to be covered in the event of a devastating flood. We offer California flood insurance from several private carriers, and we would love to be your insurer.
As you can see in this screenshot, there are many areas all over the Golden state that are California Flood zones. These are determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and if you want to see if your home is near a flood zone, you can use the their portal and enter your address to see if your home is in a high risk (A or V) designated flood zone.
More than likely, you are coming to this page about California Flood insurance because you are about to purchase a new home and your mortgage company has mandated that you purchase a flood insurance policy. The private flood insurance providers I work with carry Lloyds of London California flood insurance policies. If you’re not familiar with Lloyds, it is a collection of insurers world wide and one of the oldest names in the insurance industry.
California has had a long history of significant and damaging flooding events. In fact, some experts warn that a strong enough flooding disaster in California could be even more destructive a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, with one estimate saying a particularly bad flood could create $725 billion in estimated damages.
It’s easy to look at your home and think to yourself, “it will never ever flood here, there’s no way it’s possible” but that is not a great mindset to have in reality. Did you know that almost a third of all property loss to flooding happens in “low risk” flood zones? These are known as X zones by the FEMA maps, and represent a 500 year flood plain (0.2% chance per year) If your home is situated in an X zone, you are not required by a mortgage company to have a flood insurance policy, but it’s still a wise idea to consider California flood insurance for such an event. Remember, your homeowner’s policy will not cover damages from a natural or man made flooding event. Keep in mind the definition of flood used by insurance companies and FEMA :
A general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of normally dry land areas from:
(1) The overflow of inland or tidal waters;
(2) The unusual and rapid accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any source;
(3) Mudslides (i.e., mudflows) which are proximately caused by flooding and are akin to a river of liquid and flowing mud on the surfaces of normally dry land areas, as when earth is carried by a current of water and deposited along the path of the current.
A flood inundates a floodplain. Most floods fall into three major categories: riverine flooding, coastal flooding, and shallow flooding. Alluvial fan flooding is another type of flooding more common in the mountainous western states.
So, if you’re in need of a California Flood Insurance policy for either a residential or commercial property, please reach out to us and let us see how we can help you get a reasonable and comprehensive flood policy.