Most Americans Don’t Have Flood Insurance. Should You?
Flooding affects every US state, but many homeowners still assume it won’t happen to them. See what you know about flood risk with our quiz.
When Hurricane Helene barreled into the US last weekend, causing an estimated $225 billion-plus in damages, it underscored a critical gap in US preparedness for weather disasters: Americans’ dangerously low levels of flood insurance coverage.
Roughly 4% of people in the US have flood insurance, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Louisiana has the highest adoption level, at 27%; Utah has the lowest at just 0.3%.
The gap between coverage and the risk it’s meant to mitigate is growing, particularly as climate change drives more intense rainfall. Every US state is now affected by flooding, including California, Kentucky, Connecticut, Maryland and Vermont in recent years. Even Utah experienced flooding as recently as August.
“People just don’t think it’s going to happen to them,” says Richard Folkman, a vice president at claims-management firm Crawford & Company. “Even the people that have insurance would say, ‘I just never dreamt that we would ever flood.’”
Insurance literacy is part of the problem, says Talley Burley, manager of the climate risk and insurance division at the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund. Many people aren’t aware that flooding isn’t covered by homeowners’ insurance. Burley calls flood insurance “the most essential tool that people can have to help them repair and rebuild after a flood event.”
So how much do you know about flood insurance? And if you don’t have it yet, should you? Take our quiz and find out.
I’m not in a flood zone so I don’t need flood insurance.
Flood insurance is generally supplied by FEMA.
Flood insurance is always prohibitively expensive.
Standard flood insurance covers all damages from flooding.
Flood insurance will cover repairs anywhere in or on a building.
Renters can get flood insurance.
If you don’t have flood insurance, FEMA money will be enough to bail you out.
Flood insurance through NFIP has a payout cap of $500,000.
Most flood insurance policies are similar, so you don’t really need to pore over the specific policy and claims requirements.
It takes around two months to get flood insurance payouts.