Many Hurricane Matthew victims don’t have flood insurance

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Many Hurricane Matthew victims don’t have flood insurance

Even in high-risk flood zones, rate ranges from 25% to 65%.

Kelli Kennedy and Russ Bynum, The Associated Press on October 14, 2016

Many Americans don’t have flood insurance, some because they don’t want to pay for it, some because they don’t see the need for it.

As of August, only 19% of homeowners in Florida had flood insurance, 2% in Georgia, 9% in South Carolina and 5% in North Carolina, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Even in high-risk flood zones, the rate in those states ranged from just 25% to 65%.

Industry officials say it is a troubling situation, especially since the risk of flooding appears to be on the rise.

“We seem to be having more and more flooding events, be it climate change or other things. We’re seeing areas that are experiencing flooding events that may not have experienced them in the past,” said Cynthia DiVincenti, a vice-president at Aon National Flood Services.

Ordinary homeowner insurance typically covers wind damage — torn-off roofs, fallen trees — but not flooding. While homeowners in the high-risk zones must get flood insurance if they have a federally backed mortgage, lots of flooding takes place outside those designated hazard areas.

That was the case when heavy storms flooded parts of South Carolina last year and an unnamed storm recently inundated the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, area. The damage in Baton Rouge was put at $660 million, and most people there had no flood insurance.

“Flooding is the most common and costly disaster we see in the United States,” said FEMA spokesman Rafael Lemaitre. Flood claims have averaged more than $1.9 billion per year since 2006, according to federal officials.

Flood insurance in low- to moderate-risk areas averages $400 to $600 a year, according to FEMA. FEMA, through the National Flood Insurance Program, offers flood insurance because it’s generally not profitable for private insurers to sell it.

Matthew sideswiped Florida and Georgia last week before blowing ashore briefly in South Carolina and unloading more than a foot of rain on North Carolina, where it triggered disastrous flooding. The U.S. death toll is well over 30.

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Many Hurricane Matthew victims don’t have flood insurance