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Where Harvey is hitting hardest, 80 percent lack flood insurance


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2017 Aug 29, 1:38pm   3,028 views  4 comments

by Blurtman   ➕follow (2)   💰tip   ignore  

The vast majority of homeowners in the area devastated by Hurricane Harvey lack flood insurance, leaving many who escaped the storm with little financial help to rebuild their homes and lives.

“I wish I had flood insurance now,” lamented Leroy Moore, a 58-year-old whose home in northeast Houston filled with water. He cancelled his flood policy when it grew too expensive. He and his wife were rescued from the rising waters on Sunday by National Guard troops and are now sleeping in a church. “When it's a choice to make between things and life, sometimes you've just got to let the things go and hang on to life.”

Regular home insurance covers wind damage, but not flooding. Homeowners have to purchase separate flood insurance policies from the government-run National Flood Insurance Program, which will end in late September unless Congress renews it. In Texas, the average cost for a NFIP plan is $500 a year, but it can rise to more than $2,000 for homes inside a floodplain.

Only 17 percent of homeowners in the eight counties most directly affected by Harvey flood insurance policies, according to a Washington Post analysis of Federal Emergency Management Agency data. When disaster hits, the policies cover up to $250,000 in rebuilding costs and $100,000 to replace personal stuff like TVs and furniture.

Everyone else who loses their home to flooding will be dependent on private charity and government aid, especially grants from Federal Emergency Management Agency.

But FEMA's help is a poor substitute for flood insurance: The grants, intended to help residents rebuild homes and cover hotel stays until permanent housing is available, are capped at $33,300. Most receive significantly less. Funds will be even tighter if Congress doesn't provide additional emergency funding for Texas soon.

To get a grant, “FEMA has to believe your house is damaged so substantially that there’s no area in your house you can live in,” says Saundra Brown, a lawyer whose home in Houston was flooded. She spoke to The Washington Post while removing drywall to prevent mold. Her advice is to take photos of everything.

President Trump vowed “very rapid action” to help victims, but aid is usually slow to arrive, particularly in a large-scale disaster that strains FEMA's capacity to inspect and assess all the damaged homes.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/29/where-harvey-is-hitting-hardest-four-out-of-five-homeowners-lack-flood-insurance/?utm_term=.aa3a32b67c5f

#IPhoneVsFloodInsurance

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1   Ceffer   2017 Aug 29, 2:20pm  

Just slap some mold between a couple of bread slices and eat. We just need to change our attitudes about mold and regard it as home horticulture, just like the French!
2   Tenpoundbass   2017 Aug 29, 3:02pm  

Well insurers wont insure them because they knew they are in the flood zone.
I like how the media keeps calling it a 100 year flood. They say that every 5 years.
SRV referenced Texas floods in may songs.

The insurance companies have got their loss and spread down to the science. Their liability is limited and it's a joke to call it insurance. It's more like extortion or the bank will take your house. You're still on the take for any real hurricane damage. Either in high premiums and high deductibles or in expensive Hurricane windows and other permanent provisions.

The insurance companies now will be free to lie and say "Oh we took a beating we need to raise everyone's insurance now."
and everyone will just Okeydoke it no questions asked. We need a hawk in Texas on the insurance insurance industry like stink on shit.

I nominate Project Vertas.
3   anonymous   2017 Aug 30, 9:20am  

Tenpoundbass says
Well insurers won't insure them because they knew they are in the flood zone.


Gentle Reader,

That specific kind of flood insurance is through the Federal Gov't. It ought to be phased out, since it just encourages building the wrong structures in the wrong place.

Houston is a prime example. Right on the coast in some of the flattest land there is. Poured concrete over all of it.

Hurricane Harvey was a foregone conclusion and bound to happen sooner or later.

Now, watch what happens again in Florida.

Regards,
Roidy
P.S. I'm from New Orleans, FYI.
4   HeadSet   2018 May 28, 4:51pm  

That specific kind of flood insurance is through the Federal Gov't. It ought to be phased out, since it just encourages building the wrong structures in the wrong place.

I could not agree more. The gov even went a step further out in coastal VA. The used grants to pay for houses in low-lying areas to be raised, many by as much as 10 ft or more.

Fortunately some low lying communities require houses built in flood likely areas to be able to take a 5ft flood with no damage. That is typically done by having a tall concrete wall garage below the house, with the garage floor sloped forward for quick drainage.

I also think houses built in California's forest fire areas be required to be the poured concrete type with a steel shingle roof.

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