Stuff I learned from the big storm

mad_machine wrote: that makes sense that there would be a waiting period. My luck, I would get flooded out on day 29

its the same way for homeowner's insurance. a couple years ago a coworker's RE agent stopped returning calls for like a week. apparently she had a customer going to closing and couldn't get anyone to write a policy so they could close on the house because there was a named storm in the gulf. IIRC, it was just a tropical storm that missed us by a lot but the ins. co's policy didn't care.

its always a good idea to carry flood insurance because if your area gets re-zoned and is suddenly inside the 100-year floodplain, it will be big money to get, and it's usually required for people living inside that area. also look at the actual maps, and if you can get hold of one, a local topo. a lot of times for various reasons the "flood area" will have creative boundaries.

depending on how fast development is going on in your area, and how often the maps are updated, the fema maps can be very out of date in regards to what the actual floodplains are based on the ground elevation.

but you can view the "current" maps here. the most recent updated ones I have seen even have aerial imagery. If the map is pretty out of date, at the very least it gives you an idea of how close you are to local floodplain areas.

http://www.msc.fema.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/FemaWelcomeView?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1

We opted against flood insurance on our house. The back of our property drops off ~50 feet or so to a creek. I hear it raging during heavy rains, but it is literally a cliff behind our house, I am not worried about flooding.

bludroptop wrote:

carzan wrote: Can anyone tell me why you can't just buy flood insurance...you have to be in a designated area? I can't tell you how many people I know who have flooded and insurance wasn't available to them.

Not sure that's correct. I've owned three homes in two states, none have been in a federally designated flood hazard zone. I've never been required to have coverage but I have ALWAYS had flood insurance. What you can't do is wait until the eve of a big storm and then add coverage - there is a 30 day waiting period before the policy takes effect.

Apparently, it's not true. Any resident of a community that participates in the NFIP can buy flood insurance backed by the government. Also, you can buy privately underwritten flood insurance, but it is MUCH more expensive. I'm guessing the people who told me that (that have recently found out that it IS possible for their homes to flood) didn't know they could buy it and it wasn't a priority (at the time) to find out otherwise.