Our hearts go out to those suffering from the heavy flooding in the Midwest. All the good folks at the ACU Insurance Services serving League City, TX know about the potential of water damage from floods. League City is on the coast of Texas, just to the west of Trinity Bay and north of Galveston Bay, so we know quite a bit about flooding caused by storm surge. It only takes a few inches of water coming into a house to do major damage.
Flood Zones
Many mortgage lenders and government-backed mortgages require flood insurance before they will make a loan on a home that is located in a designated flood zone area. For those who have a loan from a lender that does not require flood insurance, and they do not get the insurance, they are risking losing everything if a serious flood happens. The chances of a serious flood happening in the next years are now higher for many areas. A flood can occur even in areas that have not seen one for over 100 years.
Outdated Flood Maps
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is responsible for the publication of the flood maps in America. They identify high-risk areas for floods based on historical data. However, so many of these maps are out-of-date. FEMA has not updated them for decades.
Lessons Learned
The flooding in the Midwest taught us quite a bit about how outdated the flood maps are and how many more homes are at risk of damage by flooding. So many homes that were outside of the traditional flood zones were damaged by these recent floods. Some towns flooded that were many miles from the nearest river. In some places, the water even breached new levees that were built to the federal standards of five feet high, when the water level rose higher than that.
Summary
FEMA recommends that even if your home is not in a designated high-risk area for flooding, homeowners should now all consider getting flood insurance. Call 800-581-2428 to talk with your agent at ACU Insurance Services in League City, TX or use our online form to get a quote for flood insurance.