SAN ANTONIO – As more families move to Texas, fewer insurance companies are offering flood insurance, driving up prices for those who can still get coverage.
In areas recently water-logged by extensive flooding, many homeowners were caught off guard without flood insurance. Some said they didn’t think they needed it because they live outside FEMA’s 100-year flood plain map, meaning flood coverage is not required by their mortgage lender.
Mistie Hinote with the Texas Department of Insurance said flood risk extends beyond designated high-risk zones.
“The National Flood Insurance Program has a statistic that 32 percent of their claims occur outside of the high risk flood areas and we say that anywhere it can rain it can flood,” Hinote said.
Another factor is that flood insurance must be purchased separately from a standard homeowners policy. A homeowners insurance company may offer a separate flood policy, but finding coverage can be difficult, and some homeowners may have to buy it through the National Flood Insurance Program.
Hinote described the NFIP as “kind of an insurer of last resort,” and said consumers should start by checking with their homeowners insurer.
“We recommend people go to their homeowners insurance company first and ask if they offer flood insurance and if they don’t that’s when you would go to the National Flood Insurance Program,” Hinote said.
Questions remain about what comes next, including how recent flooding could impact flood plain maps, how insurance rates could be affected by the recent flooding disaster, and whether the government and insurance industry will change how they offer affordable insurance that covers flooding.
More information is available at news4sanantonio.com/news/local/floods-expose-flood-insurance-crisis-in-texas.