National Flood Insurance Program

When it comes to flood insurance, you need to do your research. Like everything in life, not having all the specifics can cost you your life’s savings. Owners of both homes and businesses need to learn the specifics, so you invest in the right type of flood insurance and you don’t get a run for your money.

In 1968, congress created the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The government created this program due to the increasing amount of damage caused by floods. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) manages the NFIP and oversees the floodplain management and mapping components of the program. Within participating communities, FEMA is responsible for determining the degree to which flooding might endanger any area of land.

Over 20,000 communities in the United States and its territories participate in the NFIP by accepting and enforcing floodplain management ordinances to decrease any future flood damage from occuring. The NFIP makes national flood insurance available to homeowners, renters, and business owners in these communities.

What’s great about this program is that you and your community can purchase flood insurance even if you live in a high-flood-risk area. If your community participates in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), you can buy National Flood Insurance no matter where you live. This program has become extremely popular over the years. Each day hundreds of communities join the NFIP.

You can buy National Flood Insurance anytime - but the policy isn’t effective until a 30-day waiting period after the first premium payment. This thirty-day waiting period can be waived if the policy was purchased within 13 months of a flood map revision. If the initial flood insurance purchase was made during this 13-month period, then there is only a one-day waiting period. This one-day provision only applies when the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) is revised to show the building is now in a high-flood-risk area.
And what’s amazing about this program is that even if your property has been flooded. As long as your community is in the NFIP, you are qualified to purchase flood insurance even after your home, apartment, or business has been flooded.

Many people think because they don’t live in a high-flood-risk area, that they do not need flood insurance, but the truth of the matter is all areas are susceptible to flooding. Nearly 25 percent of the NFIP claims come from outside high-flood-risk areas. My home was flooded once and I come from a low-risk area. You never know when a bad storm can pass through your area and your home could end up getting flooded.
NFIP flood insurance is sold through private insurance companies and agents or sold directly. The NFIP also offers basement coverage also. A basement, as defined by NFIP, is any building area with a floor below ground level on all sides. Basement improvements - finished walls, floors or ceilings - are not covered by flood insurance; nor are personal belongings, like furniture and other contents. But flood insurance does cover structural elements and essential equipment, provided it is connected to a power source (if required) and installed in its functioning location.

FEMA protects many of your valuable contents under their “building coverage.”

This includes the following:

• Sump pumps
• Well-water tanks
• Pumps
• Cisterns and the water inside
• Oil tanks and the oil inside
• Natural gas tanks and the gas inside
• Pumps or tanks used with solar energy
• Furnaces
• Water heaters
• Air conditioners
• Heat pumps
• Electrical junction and circuit breaker boxes (and their utility connections)
• Foundation elements
• Stairways
• Staircases
• Elevators
• Dumbwaiters
• Unpainted drywall walls and ceilings (including fiberglass insulation) and cleanup expenses.

Protected under “content coverage” are:

• clothes washers and dryers
• food freezers and the food inside them

The NFIP recommends both building and content coverage be purchased for the most comprehensive protection. For more information, they have an official website you can go to.

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