The vast majority of California flood victims' losses won't be covered by insurance

[sarisataka]

The vast majority of California flood victims’ losses won’t be covered by insurance


Many victims of the massive storms now battering Southern California about are to be hit with another heartbreak - discovering their insurance won’t cover the damage.

The typical homeowners’ policy won’t cover loss from flood damage. That is covered by the National Flood Insurance Program, a part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But in California, where drought, not flooding, had been the more common problem until recently, homeowners are about as prepared for flood damage as hurricane-prone Florida residents are for earthquakes.

Data from NFIP shows only 52,400 homes and businesses are covered by flood insurance in the eight Southern California counties declared a disaster area because of this storm. That’s less than 1% of 7.7 million households in the affected area with coverage. Those counties have a combined population of more than 22.6 million people, according to the latest estimates from the Census Bureau.

Los Angeles County, with more than 10 million residents, has only 14,600 flood insurance policies in force. That’s roughly the same number as Lee County, Florida, which includes Fort Myers, and has fewer than 1 million residents.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/05/business/flood-insurance-california-storms/index.html

Most don't realize flooding is a standard exclusion for most policies.

[LoisB]

1. Thanks for the reminder.

[jimfields33]

2. Quite a hard lesson.

I hope most have minimal damage.