Flood Insurance? Earthquake Insurance?

[sailor]

Our property was in A zone, flood insurance required, little over $2k per year for first $250k of federal coverage (does not include basements, outbuilding, etc).
We surveyed the property to get rid of flood insurance mandate (it's called Letter of Map Amendment a.k.a. LOMA ), as our house is at least 20 ft above the water level.

Survived one "flood" so far, it took some of my firewood and dumped 12 inches of sand in my back yard. Insurance would not cover it.
DW was not amused, but kids had a blast - we were building sand castles for almost two years before the grass started to grow through it.
It also cut down my mowing time

I might have kept the flood insurance, if the chance of flooding was higher (the house is way above 1000 year flood line)

 

[devans0]

I lived in a house that was close to the 1000 year plain, but in the 500 year plain. A series of torrential rains over a week caused a flood to the ceilings in 2008. We didn't have flood insurance and had a very rough following two years to rebuild. The area was in decline as an aftermath of the flood and we moved two years ago. We now live on the overlook of the highest altitude hill in our county.

I believe that climate change has caused a shift in weather weirding events. Flooding and wind damage has and will continue to become more common, increasing the odds. I have increased insurance for wind, but did forego flood insurance, given our new floodproof locale.

Floods are the most likely event to destroy homes, at least according to FEMA. I would err on the side of caution for flood insurance.

Earthquakes are unheard of in my area. I will look at this again, though.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Our old house, on the beach, had to have flood insurance, regular homeowner's and the special gov't wind and hail policy. It was expensive, and on a house built in 1932, covered only in cases of pretty much wipeout. Never had to use it.

We now live in a "B" zone, which is not generally considered to be a flood risk. We only carry regular HO3 policy, with a higher deductible for the wind and hail. No flood insurance. Our house is up 20 feet high on concrete piers. If we get water in the house, the whole island is waaaay underwater!

 

[dallas27]

Unless I can adversely select insurance, i try to buy the minimum required by law and self insure with my savings.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[Big_Hitter]

If I lived in an area that flooded even occasionally, I would definitely carry flood insurance. Been through a few hurricanes and people who didn't have it wished they did. It is pretty inexpensive.

Flood ins was chump change when I had it

 

[Ronstar]

We're in a zone X, although we live on a lake. The lake upstream of ours, of which ours is tributary, is Zone AE with a base flood elevation of 542 and normal water elevation of 538. Our lake is at 534, connected to the upper lake by a 6' diameter culvert. One would think that our lake would be in a SFHA, but is not per FEMA. In any case, our walkout basement is at 547 so our lowest building opening is 5' higher than the neighboring lake's BFE anyway. So we're ok as flooding is concerned. Should be ok from earthquakes, although we've had a few small tremors.

 

[akck]

No flood insurance required, but have had hydrostatic pressure force water through our basement floor. The first time was during a 100 year flood event. We figured it would happen again for a long time. The second time was after a snowfall followed by a heavy rain. I also attribute it to the city diverting more water to the creek behind our house to improve fish habitat. The problem was they started at the beginning of the creek and the next road crossing had 2 - 24" culverts that were unable to take the extra flow.

When we checked about flood insurance, they said our basement wouldn't be covered as it is below grade (would be covered if it was a daylight basement). Also, any coverage would start about 2' above the floor, a highly unlikely scenario. We ended up putting in a sump pump to keep the water pressure below our floor down and the city replaced the culverts downstream with a bigger opening.