Flood Insurance

To understand what flood insurance is and whether you need flood insurance, there is a lot to consider.  You need to understand the limitations of homeowners or renters insurance coverage, the definition of a flood, and how to evaluate your flood risk.

Standard Homeowners Policies DO NOT Cover Flood Damage

Flood insurance provides coverage for more severe types of water damage that is beyond what standard homeowners insurance covers.

That is important to understand because the most commonly issued homeowners policies specifically exclude certain types of water damage, including flood.

This is what the standard insurance form states:

a.   Flood, surface water, waves, tidal water, overflow of a body of water, or spray from any of these, whether or not driven by wind;
b.   Water or water-borne material which backs up through sewers or drains or which over-flows or is discharged from a sump, sump pump or related equipment; or
c.   Water or water-borne material below the surface or the ground, including water which exerts pressure on or seeps or leaks through a building, sidewalk, driveway foundation, swimming pool or other structure;
caused by or resulting from human or animal forces or any act of nature.

In addition, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has a very specific definition of a flood:

A general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of 2 or more acres of normally dry land area or of 2 or more properties (at least 1 of which is the policyholder’s property) from:

1.   Overflow of inland or tidal waters; or
2.   Unusual and rapid accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any source; or
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.; or
4.   Collapse or subsidence of land along the shore of a lake or similar body of water as a result of erosion or undermining caused by waves or currents of water exceeding anticipated cyclical levels that result in a flood as defined above.

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.