What does that mean?  It means that even though the homeowner policy provides no coverage, the homeowner is still required to process a homeowner policy claim and be denied coverage.  After the homeowner policy denies coverage, THEN the flood policy will pay.

Good news: The Georgia Insurance Commissioner directive mandates that insurance companies do not position this type of claim to adversely affect the homeowner policy.   Many times, an insurance company will provide “claim free” discounts.  Making a homeowner claim for FEMA requirements KNOWING there is no coverage on the homeowner policy is not to have a negative impact to the homeowner policy.

Flood insurance is added security for the Flood related claim.  Make sure you understand what flood insurance coverage.  The term FLOOD is defined differently among the logic and the government view.

Many Flood polices require an elevation certificate prior to the policy being quoted or sold.  Calling Higher Grounds Surveying early will ensure a smooth process of obtaining flood insurance for your closing.

In response to an overall need for flood insurance, Congress passed the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968. This Act established the operation of a national program for providing this much-needed coverage. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is managed by the Mitigation Division of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Homeowners, commercial property owners, and residential and commercial renters desiring flood insurance must
procure this coverage directly through the NFIP or through the insurer who writes their homeowners
coverage in some cases.

Flood Definitions
A flood is a great flowing or overflowing of water, especially over land areas that are normally dry. There are several types of flooding.

• Coastal flooding occurs when hurricanes and storms produce heavy rains or drive ocean water onto land. Coastal flooding is also produced by tidal waves created by storms, earthquakes, or volcanoes. Beaches and houses are often swept away by the force of the water.
• River flooding is normally seasonal because of snowmelt or heavy rains. The water fills the river basin too quickly and the river flows over its banks. The floodplain becomes covered with water, often damaging homes and other property.
• Flash flooding is caused when small and powerful fast-flowing rivers are quickly formed because of excessive rainfall or dam failure, sometimes triggering catastrophic mudslides. Flash floods can be powerful enough to carry away roads, bridges, and other structures, and can occur with little warning.

We will post more information soon about flood insurance soon.  In the mean time, consider giving us a call for a quote or for more information about coverage.

1-877-MattLocke or 678-682-9700

Regarding basements, coverage is extremely limited:

Up to 4 items are covered in the basement if they are essential to operating the house – for example: the hot water heater, furnace, AC equipment, sump pumps, circuit breaker boxes , outlets & switches.
Drywall is covered, but we only nail it to the studs (no finishing work).
Clean up is covered .

There is no coverage for any other contents, carpet, flooring, electronics, kitchens, media room, furniture… nothing.  There is no endorsement available to expand the coverage.

1-percent annual chance water-surface elevation
The height, in relation to the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 (or other datum, where specified), of the flood having a 1-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given flood year (also known as the 100-year flood or the base flood).

100-year flood
The flood having a 1-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year; also known as the base flood. The 1-percent annual chance flood, which is the standard used by most Federal and state agencies, is used by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) as the standard for floodplain management and to determine the need for flood insurance. A structure located within a special flood hazard area shown on an NFIP map has a 26 percent chance of suffering flood damage during the term of a 30-year mortgage.

100-year floodplain
This is the boundary of the flood that has a 1-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. Officially termed the 1-percent annual chance floodplain.

500-year floodplain
This is the boundary of the flood that has a 0.2-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. Officially termed the 0.2-percent annual chance floodplain.

B
Base Flood
The flood having a 1-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year; also known as the 100-year flood. The base flood, which is the standard used by most Federal and state agencies, is used by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) as the standard for floodplain management and to determine the need for flood insurance. A structure located within a special flood hazard area shown on an NFIP map has a 26 percent chance of suffering flood damage during the term of a 30-year mortgage.

Base Flood Elevation (BFE)
The elevation of a flood having a 1-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year.

C
Channel Bank Stations
Points that identify the extreme limits of the natural stream channel. These stations are typically assigned at locations along a cross section where a relatively flat area exists outside of the channel.

Cooperating Technical Partner (CTP) Program
The Cooperating Technical Partners (CTP) Program is an innovative approach to creating partnerships between FEMA and participating National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) communities, regional agencies, and State agencies that have the interest and capability to become more active participants in the FEMA Flood Hazard Mapping Program.

Cross Section
A line developed from topographic information across a floodplain at which a computation of flood flow has been made to establish a potential flood elevation. Cross sections are shown on the Flood Boundary Floodway Map, Flood Insurance Rate Map, and/or Flood Profiles of a Flood Insurance Study.

Cubic feet per second (cfs)
Typical units used to express the rate of flow of surface water in open channels. One cubic foot is approximately equal to 7.5 gallons per second.

D
Depth
Maximum depth of water in the cross section as measured below the water-surface elevation.

Detailed Study
A flood hazard study that, at a minimum, results in the delineation of the floodplain boundaries for the 1-percent-annual-chance (100-year) flood and the determination of base flood elevations (BFEs) or flood depths.

Digital Flood Insurance Rate Map (DFIRM)
A Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) that has been prepared as a digital product, which may involve converting an existing manually produced FIRM to digital format, or creating a product from new digital data sources using a Geographic Information System environment. The DFIRM product allows for the creation of interactive, multi-hazard digital maps. Linkages are built into an associated database to allow users options to access the engineering backup material used to develop the DFIRM, such as hydrologic and hydraulic models, Flood Profiles, data tables, Digital Elevation Models, and structure-specific data, such as digital elevation certificates and digital photographs of bridges and culverts.

Discharge
The volume of water that passes a given location within a given period of time. Usually expressed in cubic feet per second (cfs).

F
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
The Federal Emergency Management Agency – a former independent agency that became part of the Department of Homeland Security in March 2003 – is tasked with responding to, planning for, recovering from and mitigating against disasters. The agency’s mission is: to lead America to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disasters with a vision of “A Nation Prepared.”

Flood (also Flooding)
A general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of normally dry land areas. For flood insurance claim purposes, two or more structures must be inundated before flood damage will be covered.

Flood Data Table (FDT)
The Floodway Data Table is found in the Flood Insurance Study for a community and gives details regarding the floodway at cross sections of studied flooding sources in the community. The information provided includes: cross section, distance, floodway width, section area of floodway, mean velocity in the floodway, floodway surcharge and the base flood water surface elevations for the regulatory floodway, with and without floodway scenarios.

Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM)
The insurance and floodplain management map produced by FEMA that identifies, based on detailed or approximate analyses, the areas subject to flooding during a 1-percent-annual-chance (100-year) flood event in a community. Flood insurance risk zones, which are used to compute actuarial flood insurance rates, also are shown. In areas studied by detailed analyses, the FIRM shows BFEs to reflect the elevations of the 1-percent-annual-chance flood. For many communities, when detailed analyses are preformed, the FIRM also may show areas inundated by 0.2-percent-annual-chance (500-year) flood and regulatory floodway areas.

Flood Insurance Study (FIS)
The examination, evaluation, and determination of flood hazards performed for a community. This report contains the information found during the study of the community’s flooding sources including study methodology, source data, discharges, water surface elevations, flood profiles, and references.

Flood Profile
A cross-sectional drawing showing the contiguous cross sections along a stream, with ground elevations and potential flood elevations plotted.

Floodplain Management
The operation of a program of corrective and preventative measures for mitigating flood damage, including, but not limited to, emergency preparedness plans, flood-control works, and floodplain management regulations.

Floodway
Channel of a stream plus any adjacent floodplain areas that must be kept free of encroachment so that the 100-year flood discharge can be conveyed without increasing the elevation of the 100-year flood by more than a specified amount (1 foot in most states).

L
Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA)
An official determination by FEMA that a property has been inadvertently included in a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) as shown on an effective FIRM and is not subject to inundation by the 1-percent-annual-chance flood. Generally, the property is located on natural high ground at or above the BFE or on fill placed prior to the effective date of the first FIRM map designating the property as within an SFHA.

Letter of Map Revision (LOMR)
A letter issued by FEMA to revise the FIRM and/or FIS report for a community to change BFEs, floodplain and floodway boundary delineations, and coastal hazard areas.

Limited Detail Study
The method of Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) identification that can be used if a Triangular Irregular Network (TIN) of Light Radar Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) data (or other digital elevation data) with break lines is available. Cross Sections and road data are obtained from these data. Openings of structures and Manning’s “n” values may be estimated with limited field inspections. No new field survey is taken. A GIS-based tool may be used to create cross section and structure data for the HEC-RAS program to determine the 1-percent-annual-chance water-surface-elevations. Because the 1-percent-annual-chance water-surface elevations are determined using approximate hydrologic and hydraulic methods with topographic and structural data, BFEs will not be shown on the FIRM, but will be provided to the community and may be used as ‘best available data’ for floodplain management regulatory purposes.

M
Map Repository
The location where a community’s flood maps are kept; usually the local zoning and planning office.

N
National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)
Federal insurance program under which flood-prone areas are identified and flood insurance is made available to residents of participating communities that agree to adopt and enforce floodplain management ordinances to reduce future flood damage.

O
Orthophotograph
Aerial photographs that have been rectified to produce an accurate image of the Earth by removing tilt and relief displacements that occurred when the photo was taken. An orthophotograph has the same scale throughout and can be used as a base map for the DFIRM.

R
Redelineation
This method of Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) identification can only be used for previously studied streams. Using this method, the SFHA boundary is redefined using the effective water surface elevations superimposed on updated topography. No changes are made to the currently effective model. This case involves situations for which new topographic data exists for a study reach or entire county. The new topographic data is more recent and of higher quality than the topographic data originally used in the effective study. When the original hydraulic model is not available digitally but the model is correct, the effective FEMA profile forms the basis of the redelineation. The appropriate vertical datum conversion is applied, and the revised flood boundaries are mapped on the new topographic source. In this case, the BFEs will be republished on the DFIRM. The deliverable will be digital flood boundaries that match best available topographic data, recreated flood profiles, and floodway data tables meeting FEMA’s Guidelines and Specifications for Flood Hazard Mapping Partners.

S
Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA)
The area delineated on a National Flood Insurance Program map as being subject to inundation by the base flood. SFHAs are determined using statistical analyses of records of riverflow, storm tides, and rainfall; information obtained through consultation with a community; floodplain topographic surveys; and hydrologic and hydraulic analyses.

Five Years Ago
The 2004 hurricane season is one Floridians won’t soon forget. The season got a late start with the first storm forming on August 1. Things progressed quickly from there with the development of Tropical Storm Bonnie and Hurricane Charley, both making landfall in Florida within 24 hours of each other. The season brought an additional three storms, Hurricanes Francis, Ivan and Jeanne, to the Sunshine State causing more than $42 billion in total damages.

Ten and Twenty Years Ago
Last year’s hurricanes aren’t the only storms that are still fresh in most people’s minds. Some property owners still remember other devastating hurricanes that struck long ago and resulted in years of costly clean-up and rebuilding. This September marks the ten-year anniversary of Hurricane Floyd, which made landfall in North Carolina on September 16, 1999. The storm traveled up the East Coast as a tropical storm and passed over Long Island and into New England, causing record rainfall and flooding across the east coast, with Wilmington, NC and Philadelphia, PA setting 24-hour rainfall records of 15.06 in. and 6.63 in. respectively. Floyd was one of the costliest hurricanes on record, with an estimated $4.5 billion in damage.

Hurricane Hugo marks its twentieth anniversary this year, as it made landfall and caused extensive damage to Charleston, SC on September 21, 1989. By the time it moved up the coastline and reached inland to Charlotte, NC, Hugo was still a Category 3 hurricane and ultimately caused 29 counties in North Carolina to be declared federal disaster areas.Hugo’s storm surge was the highest ever recorded on the East Coast and its 150 mile wide swath resulted in major damage hundreds of miles inland – it caused $7 billion in damage and remains the sixth costliest hurricane in U.S. history.

INFO FROM: info@floodsmart.com

Atlantic peak hurricane season has arrived, and residents and business owners should not assume that a calm June and July mean a major hurricane is not on its way. There is often a “calm before the storm” during early summer months – minimal storm activity followed by massive tropical storms and/or hurricanes occurring mid-August through October. Over the last 158 years, nearly 80 percent of all tropical storms and hurricanes develop during this time. This August three named storms formed in just 33 hours. These late summer storms can cause massive flooding that devastate communities and destroy homes.

Past seasons have shown that peak hurricane season can bring severe weather to the Gulf and Southern coasts, the Eastern Seaboard, as well as far inland. While storm surge caused by hurricanes and tropical storms can wreak havoc on coastal areas, hurricanes and tropical storms moving inland can bring torrential rains and high winds that intensify the risk of flooding for residents living hundreds of miles from the coast.

Remind home and business owners in your community that the only protection against costly flood damage is flood insurance. Unprotected property owners should seriously consider purchasing a flood insurance policy now – especially because there is typically a 30-day waiting period before it becomes effective and most standard homeowners insurance policies do NOT cover flood damage.

Attention Agents: Protect Your Customers!
If you’re an insurance agent you already know that without flood insurance, property owners may have to absorb the financial losses caused from flooding on their own, potentially wiping out their savings. Let your customers know that flood insurance is more affordable than they may think. The average flood insurance policy is around $540 a year, but for homes in moderate-to-low risk areas, Preferred Risk Policies start as low as $119 a year.

Encourage your customers to visit FloodSmart.gov/hurricane to learn more about the risk of flooding during hurricane season and how they can protect their homes and its contents with flood insurance. Agents.FloodSmart.gov has tools and resources that will help you reach out to your customers to warn them about hurricane season, including hurricane-themed direct mail templates (sent directly from your desktop!) and hurricane season ads available in the NFIP Agent Co-Op Advertising Program. And while you’re there, sign up for the Agent Referral Program and receive free leads.

The NFIP is currently set to expire on September 30, 2009. Earlier this year, an extension was signed by President Obama just hours before the program was set to expire. The current extension should provide Congress with additional time to continue working on long-term improvements to the NFIP, industry groups say. “This extension is just a temporary fix, but a significant and welcome development for the millions of homeowners and small businesses who count on NFIP as a safety net in the event of flooding,” said Charles E. Symington Jr., the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America’s (the Big “I”) senior vice president for government affairs.

 ”If the NFIP is allowed to expire, millions of consumers will be left vulnerable the next time a flood devastates a community.” As of press time, there was no word on whether the Senate would take action on the NFIP extension act prior to recess.

Protect Your Customers
Without flood insurance, property owners may have to absorb the financial losses caused from flooding on their own, potentially wiping out their savings. Just inches of water can cause thousands of dollars of damage to their home, and repair and clean-up after a flood is time consuming, difficult and expensive – many households can’t afford to NOT buy flood insurance, given the financial consequences floods can cause. Flood insurance can ultimately help save money and ease recovery.
 
Let your customers know that flood insurance is more affordable than they may think. The average flood insurance policy is around $540 a year and for homes in moderate-to-low risk areas, Preferred Risk Policies start as low as $119 a year.

Encourage your customers to visit www.floodsmart.gov/hurricane to learn more about the risks specific to their community during hurricane season and how they can protect their homes and assets with flood insurance. 

(This article came directly from Floodsmart.gov and its intended audience is the Agent.  This is still good information for the consumer and others.)