Homeowners are reminded that springtime means flood insurance

Flood InsuranceWith the official start of spring, while many homeowners are seeing that the dry conditions over the winter have reduced the risk of flooding, the Insurance Information Institute is reminding them that throughout the springtime, the flooding risk still remains high due to hurricanes, heavy rains, and other types of catastrophes.

Homeowners, home renters, and business owners should all consider purchasing a policy that will protect them from flood, or renewing one that they have already had, to ensure that there isn’t a gap in their coverage.

In the United States, floods are one of the most common forms of natural disaster. Though some are the result of a slow development, others can seem to come out of nowhere and occur with as little as a few minutes of warning; as is the case with flash floods. Flooding can also be quite localized, or they can be quite vast, meaning that they can impact a small part of a neighborhood, or they can stretch over several states.

What is even more unfortunate about flooding is that not only does there remain a small fraction of Americans who have purchased protection against flooding, but the number of uninsured individuals is continuing to grow. The data from an Insurance Information Institute poll in 2011 indicated that only 14 percent of homeowners in the United States have an insurance policy that protects them against flooding.

Though this number is still higher than it was in 2010, when only 10 percent of homeowners had a flood insurance policy, it is still notably lower than it was back in 2008, when 17 percent said that they had coverage. The southern states have the highest percentage of coverage, where 19 percent of homeowners are covered, which is up from the 14 percent who had it two years ago, equaling 2009’s levels.

In the Midwest, 13 percent of homeowners were insured against flooding last year, while the Western states saw 12 percent coverage and only 5 percent of the homeowners in the Northeast were protected.

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