Flood Insurance:

Flood Insurance provides coverage against damages to the property that is caused by flooding waters. Many people are under the wrong impression that they are covered with homeowner’s policy against natural disasters like flood. The fact is, damages to your property as a result of natural disasters are normally not included in your homeowner’s insurance policy and therefore, if you want to add natural disaster protection to your homeowner’s policy, you will have to buy endorsements which will costs high premiums. Alternatively, you can buy a simple disaster related policy, like flood insurance.

The U.S. government offers flood coverage under the National Flood Insurance Program. In 1968, US congress established the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which offers flood insurance facilities and enforces precautionary measures to reduce the risks of flood in Special Flood Hazard Areas – (SFHA) is an area of land that would be inundated by a flood having a 1% chance of occurring in any given year.

Federal assistance for flood insurance is not available for residents of communities that do not participate in the NFIP. A flood, as defined by the National Flood Insurance Program is: "A general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of two or more acres of normally dry land area or of two or more properties (at least one of which is your property) from:

Overflow of inland or tidal waters, Unusual and rapid accumulation or runoff of surface water from any source, or

A mudflow Collapse or subsidence of land along the shore of a lake or similar body of water as a result of erosion or undermining caused by waves or currents of water exceeding anticipated cyclical levels that result in a flood."

Federal law makes flood insurance is a mandatory insurance policy for securing loans for the properties that is situated in flood prone areas. Flood insurance is also compulsory if you have received a federal grant for losses in past flooding/s.

Flooding is one of the most common natural disasters. According to studies conducted for flood related damages, if a structure is in a Special Flood Hazard Area, it has a 26-percent chance of getting flooded over a 30-year period, which is about five times more likely to get damaged by flood than by a severe fire.