What is Flood Insurance?
What is flood insurance? That’s a fair question to ask, since you’re on a flood insurance agency’s website. Flooding is the number one most catastrophic disaster that can happen on planet Earth, and costs more in damage than all other major disasters.
What is a flood?
According to the NFIP, or National Flood Insurance Program (a branch of FEMA) a flood is defined as:
A general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of two or more acres of normally dry land or two or more properties from:
- overflow of inland or tidal waters
- unusual and rapid accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any source,
- mudflow
So, floods can happen from natural events such as a hurricane, heavy rain storm, or mountain snow runoff – an excellent example of this in Colorado were the 2013 floods caused by several days of extremely heavy rain. Here is a video with news reports showing some of the devastation that event caused in Boulder County. Courtesy of ABC News
What is Flood Insurance?
Due to the catastrophic nature of flooding, the National Flood Insurance Program was created in 1927 after several major flooding events, specifically the 1927 Mississippi River Flood.
This flood event covered 27,000 square miles, cost $400 million in damage and claimed 246 lives. A disaster of epic proportions – some areas were flooded under 30 feet of water. After this flood, Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1928 – charging the Army corps of engineers with preventing the nation’s rivers from causing such destruction. For more info on the history of the National flood insurance program check out this video.
Private Market Flood Insurance
While most people obtain flood insurance through the Federal government’s NFIP program, there are several private market flood insurance products that most are not aware of. Save Flood Insurance Agency Inc is one of these entities, and we seek to provide a better flood insurance coverage with a lower premium. Some of the benefits of our flood insurance products:
- no elevation certificate required
- potential higher limits than the NFIP program
- Underwritten by AM Best (Excellent) underwriters
- provides loss of use coverage
- 20-50% less premium cost than NFIP!
So, if you’re curious about obtaining insurance for your property, or want to switch to private market, we’d love to help. Fill out the form below and we can send you a quote.