A person’s home is 26 percent more likely to be damaged by flooding than it is by fire. Yet everyone who owns a home has fire insurance and few have flood insurance.
This information was emphasized at a meeting with FEMA Flood Insurance agents and Lake Region residents held in City Hall Tuesday, March 2.
Barb Fitzpatrick and Dave Kyner headed up a team of five FEMA workers bringing information and answers to area residents threatened by flooding.
They explained that normal homeowner’s insurance does not cover flood damage. To get that, a separate flood insurance policy must be purchased.
Who sells it? The federal government sells it, but it is purchased through the homeowners’ own insurance agent.
If purchased, there are two different kinds of policies. One, the regular flood insurance policy, covers only the structure and big ticket items like water heaters and furnaces.
Not personal items.
A second policy that can be purchased in addition to the first can cover personal items, like furniture, appliances and so on.
The agents with Fitzpatrick and Kyner went through information contained in brochures and pamphlets they’d brought with them discussing the importance of having an evacuation plan, an emergency kit, even defining what a flood is.
They told the gathering that a flood is “an overflow of water, from any source onto normally dry land.” The simplicity of the definition did little to aid confusion and questions from the audience, however.
Their questions were many. One woman was concerned about needing an elevation certificate for her property. She told Kyner that her flood insurance premiums had gone from $294 to $334, $361 and this year had jumped to $2,722. She had been told by her agent that she needed an elevation certificate to prove her home was at or above a certain elevation. Kyner asked her a few questions about when the home was purchased and then told her that a certificate was not needed. He suspected that an error had been made, either when the insurance policy was first issued or now when the fees were raised. He told her that she should contact her homeowner’s insurance agent and gave her Norm Ashford’s number. He is the Region 8 National Flood Insurance Specialist and can be reached at 303-235-4912.
Kyner discussed the issue at Tuesday’s meeting that the reauthorization of funding for the National Flood Insurance Program was being held up in Congress by one member who was challenging all bills brought forward, but he was confident that it would be reauthorized shortly.
And he was right.
Congress voted late last night to reauthorized the funding for the National Flood Insurance Program, putting to rest any fears that new policies or renewing policies were being held up in Washington.
For the most up-to-date information on flooding and flood preparedness Kyner gave out two websites: ready.gov and floodsmart.gov. “These are the best places to go to for information on planning, preparing for and everything you should know as flood season hits,” he said.
The Devils Lake Journal will be publishing a special edition for the Flood of 2010 planned to be released on March 11.
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A person’s home is 26 percent more likely to be damaged by flooding than it is by fire. Yet everyone who owns a home has fire insurance and few have flood insurance.
This information was emphasized at a meeting with FEMA Flood Insurance agents and Lake Region residents held in City Hall Tuesday, March 2.
Barb Fitzpatrick and Dave Kyner headed up a team of five FEMA workers bringing information and answers to area residents threatened by flooding.
They explained that normal homeowner’s insurance does not cover flood damage. To get that, a separate flood insurance policy must be purchased.
Who sells it? The federal government sells it, but it is purchased through the homeowners’ own insurance agent.
If purchased, there are two different kinds of policies. One, the regular flood insurance policy, covers only the structure and big ticket items like water heaters and furnaces.
Not personal items.
A second policy that can be purchased in addition to the first can cover personal items, like furniture, appliances and so on.
The agents with Fitzpatrick and Kyner went through information contained in brochures and pamphlets they’d brought with them discussing the importance of having an evacuation plan, an emergency kit, even defining what a flood is.
They told the gathering that a flood is “an overflow of water, from any source onto normally dry land.” The simplicity of the definition did little to aid confusion and questions from the audience, however.
Their questions were many. One woman was concerned about needing an elevation certificate for her property. She told Kyner that her flood insurance premiums had gone from $294 to $334, $361 and this year had jumped to $2,722. She had been told by her agent that she needed an elevation certificate to prove her home was at or above a certain elevation. Kyner asked her a few questions about when the home was purchased and then told her that a certificate was not needed. He suspected that an error had been made, either when the insurance policy was first issued or now when the fees were raised. He told her that she should contact her homeowner’s insurance agent and gave her Norm Ashford’s number. He is the Region 8 National Flood Insurance Specialist and can be reached at 303-235-4912.
Kyner discussed the issue at Tuesday’s meeting that the reauthorization of funding for the National Flood Insurance Program was being held up in Congress by one member who was challenging all bills brought forward, but he was confident that it would be reauthorized shortly.
And he was right.
Congress voted late last night to reauthorized the funding for the National Flood Insurance Program, putting to rest any fears that new policies or renewing policies were being held up in Washington.
For the most up-to-date information on flooding and flood preparedness Kyner gave out two websites: ready.gov and floodsmart.gov. “These are the best places to go to for information on planning, preparing for and everything you should know as flood season hits,” he said.
The Devils Lake Journal will be publishing a special edition for the Flood of 2010 planned to be released on March 11.
