Today, you can insure almost any enclosed building and its contents against flood loss, as long as your community is participating in the NFIP.

Remember, standard Homeowners Insurance policies do not cover flood loss. For more details on Flood Insurance protection, call your agent or company today. Generally, there is a 30-day waiting period for this policy to become effective, so don't wait until a flood is coming to apply.

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National Flood Insurance Program Update
The National Flood Insurance Program has been extended until September 2008. It requires property owners who file repeated flood claims to be offered opportunities to sell their homes to the government or to prevent flood damage either by elevating or moving their homes.

Those refusing help would be denied disaster aid in subsequent floods and would eventually be subject to the full actuarial rates for flood coverage for their properties. The bill makes information on flood insurance more widely available and institutes minimum training and education requirements for agents who sell Flood Insurance.

Complaints stemming from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 showed that some people did not understand their coverage. The number of flood policies in force is growing but so are the claims. In 2003, there were 4.6 million policies in force compared with 4.5 million the previous year, the latest data available.

Premiums grew from $1.9 billion in 2003 to $2.0 billion in 2004. The number of claims jumped from 32,189 to 37,659 in 2004 and the cost of flood losses paid rose from $605.4 million to $1.2 billion in 2004. Flood damage can be expensive. The typical 2003 Flood Insurance claim was more than four times as high as the typical homeowners claim that same year.

Protecting Your Home From Flood Damage. (Institute for Business & Home Safety)

Source: Insurance Information Institute