Protect Yourself with Flood Insurance

Over the past few weeks, we have all witnessed the devastation and destruction that a hurricane can bring. Residents of Houston are still recovering from the deluge resulting from Hurricane Harvey, and property owners in Florida are trying to evaluate their losses after Hurricane Irma.  Unfortunately, many of these individuals and business owners are going to find out the hard way that their insurance simply will not cover all the resulting damage.

According to a report in USA Today, 80% of Hurricane Harvey victims do not have flood insurance. Therefore, any family or business with this type of damage to their building or contents will have to go out of pocket to restore things. In many cases, this will cause financial ruin.  In fact, Robert Hunter, Director of Insurance at the Consumer Federation of America, reports that only two of ten homeowners devastated by Hurricane Harvey have flood insurance coverage.

Obviously evaluating your insurance needs after a loss is not the best time and relying on your lender to tell you whether you need flood insurance coverage is simply not a good way to manage risk.  Flash back to the spring floods of 2010 to remember the local devastation that occurred after several days of heavy rain in Rhode Island.  It has happened before and it will certainly occur again.

Some important facts to understand about flood insurance:

– Flooding does occur outside of ‘high-risk’ areas and insurance is available in these areas at a greatly reduced cost even if your mortgage company does not require it.

– You cannot purchase flood insurance right before the storm is coming.  There is typically a 14 or 30 day waiting period with flood insurance unless you are closing on a loan and it’s required.

– There are many private flood insurance options available for homeowners and business owners that are reducing costs and offering improved coverage.

At OceanPoint Insurance, we strive to design customized, complete insurance packages to protect you against catastrophic loss. With the tremendous damage resulting from the most recent hurricanes, and with more forecasted for the season, now is the time to give us a call to review your options and understand ways we can reduce your risk of loss.

Please contact us at 847-5200 or info@oceanpointins.com to discuss your concerns with one of our agents.