@mrmhead Said
So I see people on the news, after Harvey, saying "They have no insurance" - or something to that effect.
Do they really not have insurance, does insurance not cover hurricanes (or floods) or didn't they carry a rider for hurricanes?
I'm asking you because I thought you might be more familiar with the regional coverage options than I would up here NEOH...
Thanks
.... I had some minor damage from Sandy and it was covered... so ...
I guess I find it difficult to fathom owning a house but not insuring it.
Here is my understanding (someone with more knowledge should feel free to correct me).
1. Flood insurance used to be
mandatory in Florida. I do not think it was mandatory in other states that are prone to hurricanes (aka the south Atlantic and Gulf coast states).
2. At some point in time, after the H Katrina & H Rita events, flood insurance was no longer
mandatory in Florida. Why?
I want to say that this happened around 2011...but I might be wrong.
So as it turns out one might have insurance that covers hurricane damage, but not have insurance that covers flood damage. This is very common.
This was also a big problem in regards to H Katrina in New Orleans... the vast majority of the damage was actually flood damage, not hurricane damage. (Now someone here please attack me and scream that they are either the same thing or at a minimum the flooding comes from the hurricane... go ahead... make a fool of me...).
If one had visited the states that were impacted by H Katrina, just after the storm, one would know that some areas were devastated by the hurricane. However, a lot if not most of the areas were devastated by the resulting flooding. One might think it is a
no brainer that these are the same... check your insurance policy(its)....they are not.
Now considering the fact that most hurricane related damage actually comes from flooding (I am sort of repeating myself here), one would think that one should have and want flood insurance.
This is apparently not the case.... see New Orleans & Houston.
As it turns out, I don't have flood insurance for my house in Florida. Our geography is different than either New Orleans or Houston...at least my part of south Florida is different. New Orleans and Houston both have levees (earthen damns)...when they break or overflow you get flooding. We have canals. They also over flow, but don't break. When we have a lot of water, it flows either into the ocean or into the Everglades. Yes, we can get flooding and have flood damage...but (at least normally) nothing like the Mississippi Delta region. In Florida, we also have fairly strict building codes based on hurricanes.
I know this
from personal experiences with hurricanes. Wilma was my girlfriend...we had a lovely date... I saw her come, sat through her eye, and then saw her go...she damaged my roof (a bit) and tore down a few of my trees, lost power for about 8 days... but in spite of only being a couple feet above sea level...no flooding in my home.
Why... we have canals that take the water flow, and our homes are built with strict codes.
(And yes...there were areas of Florida that had flooding...but nothing like New Orleans or Houston.)
Sorry...that probably was both verbose and incomplete.