Don’t learn the hard way that your home insurance doesn’t cover the damage a hurricane or flood causes. If you just moved to a hurricane-prone area then you need to research the types of insurance that cover damage if one affects your property. In 2019, 18 named storms hit the USA, from which six became hurricanes and three reached Category 3 or higher intensity. Statistics show that a typical year has 12 named storms, six hurricanes, and 3 major hurricanes, so chances are your house to experience damage every year. If you lack comprehensive coverage, you’ll find difficult to handle the repairs, even if you have a high-paid job. And what’s the point of spending thousands of dollars annually when you can buy the insurance and have all the damage covered.
Most of the homeowners located in hurricane-prone areas buy flood insurance because it offers the greatest benefits. Here is what you should know.
Why should you get flood insurance?
Even if the local authorities don’t establish flood insurance mandatory for homes in your area, you should consider getting it. The hurricanes that move slowly often cause rains that generate damage by flooding. So, not only aggressive hurricanes destroy houses.
If
you have a mortgage on the house, the lender will ask you to purchase flood
insurance when the property is located in a flood hazard area. Do you still
have doubts? Here are some reasons to consider buying comprehensive coverage.
It saves you money
It’s wise to be prepared for natural disasters, no matter if you live in a flood-prone area or not. If one damages your house you can spend thousands or even hundreds of dollars to repair it, if you lack insurance. FEMA states that 3 inches of floodwater can generate $8000 costs when you have no insurance. Only 3 inches of water require replacement of floors, carpets, furniture, baseboards, hardwood, and drywalls. It destroys everything that touches the floors.
An
average storm or rain can cause 12 inches of water in a flood-prone area, so
you’ll need to pay for more than floors and carpets, you need to repair the
electrical system, buy new appliances, and install a new heating and cooling
system. A serious flood can cost more than $30,000.
Your standard insurance doesn’t protect you from flood
It
may be surprising to find out that regular insurance doesn’t cover for
hurricanes and flood, but usually homeowner’s insurance only protects you
against water pouring from the sky.
This
means that your insurance doesn’t cover floodwaters and you need to purchase
one created for this specific damage.
Floods are the most common natural disaster
It’s terrifying to find out that floods are the most common natural disaster because it’s pricey to repair the damages they create. Americans pay annually $8.2 million to fix flood damages. And the bad news is that flooding doesn’t come alone, it’s often accompanied by other forms of natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, storms and earthquakes.
Buying
a comprehensive policy protects your house not only from flooding but also if
your neighbour overflows your house.
Where to find it?
You
need to contact the local insurance brokers to find out their offers and
compare services. Run an Internet search to identify the most reliable brokers
from your area. You can also find an agent through the National Flood Insurance
Program managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Flood insurance is
available to all homeowners located in a hurricane-prone area.
Each
insurance provider offers different flood insurances, but most of them don’t
include the following services in the flood policy.
Water from inside the house
To
use the coverage to pay for flood damage the water must come from outside your
home. If something breaks inside the house (a pipe for example) and it
inundates one of the rooms, the flood coverage doesn’t pay for the repairs. You
need to use the homeowner policy for these expenses.
It doesn’t cover landscaping and swimming pools
If
your swimming pool breaks and drowns your property, you cannot use the
insurance to repair the damage. And even if water outside your house destroys
your property, the broker won’t reimburse for gardens, trees, and other
landscaping elements.
It only covers big floods
Some
companies cover only big floods that cover more than two acres or that affect
at least two properties in the same area. Also, if your house experiences mould
or mildew damage you could have prevented, it may not pay for the
deterioration.
It doesn’t include money and important papers
Most
policies don’t pay for the value of precious metals and stones, stock
certificates, currency, and other valuable papers you may keep inside the
house. It’s advisable to keep them in a safe place where natural disasters
cannot destroy them.
It doesn’t pay for improvements made to below-ground areas
You may want to transform your basement in a man cave, but before doing it you should know that flood insurance doesn’t cover the improvements. When living in a hurricane-prone area it’s recommended to remove all personal property from the basement because water can inundate it. Store in the basement only items you can spare.
Buying home insurance
Before
you purchase flood insurance, speak to your local broker to find out how much
insurance you need and what it covers. Most companies have a waiting period
before the policy is in force, so you shouldn’t wait until the first signs of a
storm appear.
When
your current provider doesn’t sell flood insurance you can buy a separate one
from another one. But before contacting them, document all improvements you
brought to your property. Last but not least, ask the broker what costs does
the policy cover because the majority of them don’t pay all replacement costs.
They usually focus on reimbursing your home’s structure and contents.
Hurricane Hermine has become the first to hit Florida in 11 years.
Hermine has made landfall in northern Florida early on September 2 as a Category one hurricane, bringing with it a heavy storm surge.
Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for 51 counties as residents were braced for the dangerous storm.
Wind gusts reached 80mph on September 1, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
City officials in the state capital Tallahassee, which is in the path of the storm, said at least 70,000 homes were now without power.
Photo Wikipedia
Tallahassee weather officials warned of the risk of flash floods and urged people there to move to higher ground, but winds have now started to reduce as the storm moves inland.
While the area is prone to storms and storm surges, it has not seen a hurricane in close to 4,000 days.
The last hurricane to strike Florida was Wilma in October 2005, which made landfall in the same year as Katrina and caused five deaths and an estimated $23 billion of damage.
Gov. Rick Scott said: “This is life threatening. We have not had a hurricane in years.”
He added that 8,000 members of the Florida National Guard were prepared to be deployed in the wake of the storm.
Rick Scott ordered evacuations in five counties in Florida’s north-west and called for voluntary evacuations in three other coastal counties.
St Petersburg was littered with downed palm fronds and tree branches, and low-lying streets were flooded.
According to weather officials, Hurricane Hermine will also hit Georgia and the Carolinas, and could bring heavy rains along the East Coast in the coming days.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has declared a state of emergency for 56 counties.
A “catastrophic” winter storm is unleashing a second wave of heavy snowfall on the US Northeast, as hundreds of thousands of people remain without power in the states in its southern wake.
About 550,000 homes and businesses are still in the dark and almost 1,000 Friday flights are cancelled.
The ice storm has been blamed for at least 22 deaths, including that of a pregnant woman struck by a snowplough.
It is the latest miserable weather to pummel the winter-weary eastern US.
Early this month, Washington DC, Detroit, Boston, Chicago, New York and St Louis had recorded two to three times as much snow as normal by this time in the winter season.
This storm system has already dumped as much as 15in of snow in the Washington DC region and 8in around New York City by Thursday.
Up to another foot is forecast in a second snowfall that began on Thursday evening and is expected to continue through Friday morning, with the heaviest precipitation in the US states of Connecticut and Massachusetts.
The National Weather Service predicted the weather would ease by the weekend.
“Heavy snow will continue tonight… but will begin to taper off from south to north through the morning hours on Friday,” the official forecaster said.
The snow-covered streets in the nation’s capital were largely deserted on Thursday, after the federal government closed its Washington-area offices to spare its widely dispersed workforce the trouble and danger of the drive to work.
A second wave of heavy snowfall hits the US Northeast
On Friday, official Washington will start work two hours behind the ordinary schedule, the Office of Personnel Management said.
More than 6,500 US flights were cancelled on Thursday, according to airline-tracking website FlightAware.com. Another 1,000 on Friday’s schedule have already been grounded.
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio was criticized for keeping schools open on Thursday despite the snow piling on the ground.
The head of the city schools teachers union said it was a “mistake” to have students, parents and school staff travelling under such conditions, while a prominent meteorologist and television personality opened a public spat on Twitter with the mayor.
“It’s going to take some kid or kids getting hurt before this goofball policy gets changed,” Al Roker of NBC wrote on Twitter from Sochi, Russia, where he is covering the Winter Olympics. Al Roker has a daughter in the city schools.
Bill de Blasio responded that many parents depended on schools to watch over their children while they work – and noted the city had closed schools only 11 times for snow since 1978.
“We were convinced that kids could get to schools this morning,” he said.
The multi-day storm has been blamed for almost two dozen deaths.
In New York City on Thursday, a pregnant woman was killed after being struck by a snowplough. Her baby was delivered in critical condition via caesarean section.
The storm moved into the north-east on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, leaving in its southern wake a wreckage of snapped tree branches and power lines coated in as much as an inch of ice.
Most of the remaining power cuts are in South Carolina and Georgia, where President Barack Obama declared a disaster, opening the way for federal aid.
Forecasters said it was one of the worst storms to strike Atlanta, the largest city in the South, since 1973.
France and Italy are on flood alert as heavy rain brings chaos to parts of Europe.
Hundreds of people were forced to evacuate their homes in the Italian city of Pisa as the Arno River threatened to burst its banks on Friday.
High seas are expected to cause widespread flooding along France’s Atlantic coast.
Meanwhile, deep snow drifts left dozens of people stranded in Serbia.
Hundreds of people were forced to evacuate their homes in the Italian city of Pisa as the Arno River threatened to burst its banks
Local officials declared a state of emergency and deployed rescue teams to help travelers trapped in their vehicles. Snow storms and strong winds have been sweeping across Eastern Europe.
Italian media said a stretch of medieval wall measuring about 95ft in the town of Volterra, in the province of Pisa, collapsed as a result of heavy rain.
The French department of Finistere, in the west of the country, was placed on red alert as forecasters warned of huge waves and extensive flooding. Ten other French departments were also on alert for rising water levels.
At least two people died and scores had to be airlifted to safety after floods hit south-eastern France earlier this month.
Severe storms have been battering Europe for much of January.
A storm will hit the South during Saturday night and much of the mid-Atlantic and southern New England on Sunday bringing a dose of drenching rain, minor flooding and travel delays.
Those taking to the roadways should expect poor visibility from the driving rain and be wary of water collecting on portions of the highway that drain poorly.
The rain will be heavy enough to cause flash, urban and small stream flooding. However, fast movement of the storm system will prevent widespread and major flooding of larger streams and rivers. A general 1 to 2 inches, with locally 3 inches of rain is forecast and should be handled with few problems on the major rivers.
Downpours, fog and low cloud ceilings can lead to flight delays.
The storm was already spreading rain across the Gulf Coast on Saturday morning. It was a wet drive along the I-10 corridor from much of Louisiana to Mississippi and Alabama.
Atlanta can expect rain on Saturday afternoon through Saturday night, but improving travel conditions on Sunday.
The storm will hit the South during Saturday night and much of the mid-Atlantic and southern New England on Sunday
Farther northeast along the I-85 corridor, rain will soak the Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C., areas on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Expect a miserable drive Saturday night along I-77 with rain, but also fog over the high ground.
The rain will reach Richmond and Roanoke, Virginia, late on Saturday night.
In the I-95 swath from Jacksonville, Florida to Savannah, Georgia, along the coasts of South and North Carolina, to southeastern Virginia, thunderstorms will also affect some locations with strong, gusty winds and blinding downpours
A couple of the strongest storms can produce a short-lived tornado.
On Sunday, rain and thunderstorms will push southeastward across the Florida Peninsula, while clearing sweeps from west to east across the interior South.
Farther north along I-95 from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia and New York City on Sunday, rain will spread northward. A breeze will cause the rain to be windswept at times, further reducing the visibility and adding misery to those attending NFL games.
The rain will reach across southern New England on Sunday afternoon and evening from Hartford, Connecticut, and Providence, Rhode Island, to Boston.
More than half a million households in the north-eastern US and the south-eastern Canada are still without electricity after last weekend’s severe ice storm.
Utility crews are working round-the-clock, but warn that some homes could be without power at least until Saturday.
In Toronto, 72,000 people were without electricity on Christmas Day, officials in Canada’s Ontario province said.
At least 27 deaths in the region have been linked to the storm.
Most of those were caused by apparent carbon monoxide poisoning as people used gas generators, charcoal stoves and other appliances to heat their homes in freezing temperatures.
In Toronto, 72,000 people were without electricity on Christmas Day
“I understand they want to keep warm, but you cannot do this. This is deadly,” Toronto Mayor Rob Ford warned earlier this week.
Other fatalities were caused by traffic accidents.
Elsewhere in Canada, tens of thousands of people are still without power in New Brunswick and Quebec, and hundreds in Nova Scotia.
In the US, states from Maine to Michigan have been affected by the adverse weather.
Travel between Toronto and Montreal, Ottawa and New York had been disrupted.
Environment Canada meteorologist David Phillips warned earlier this week that the ice would remain as temperatures stayed below freezing.
Businesses and services in the north-eastern US are expected to start re-opening on Wednesday after two days of closure forced by Hurricane Sandy.
Some airports, government buildings, schools and the New York Stock Exchange are due to return to business.
But many homes still have no power and the New York subway will remain shut. More than 40 people are dead.
President Barack Obama, who has suspended his election campaign, is due to visit affected areas in New Jersey.
The cost of clearing up after storm Sandy has been estimated at $30-40 billion.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said: “We have not seen damage like this in a generation.”
The storm is still causing severe disruption after moving inland from the coast. It is forecast to weaken as it turns north into Canada, but to continue dumping heavy snow and rainfall.
At least 22 people were killed in New York City alone.
JFK and Newark Liberty – two of the New York area’s three main airports – were scheduled to open for a limited service on Wednesday, but severe delays were expected after the cancellation of more than 18,000 flights across the affected area.
The New York Stock Exchange says it will also re-open after two days’ closure, as will the Nasdaq exchange. The last time the stock exchange shut down for two days was in 1888.
Businesses and services in the north-eastern US are expected to start re-opening on Wednesday after two days of closure forced by Hurricane Sandy
New York’s subway system sustained the worst damage in its 108-year history, said Joseph Lhota, head of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA).
Subway tunnels were flooded and electrical equipment will have to be cleaned before the network can re-open.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there was “no timeline” for when the subway would restart, but he hoped buses could begin running again on Wednesday.
Trams and ferries were resuming services, but most of New York’s bridges remain closed.
Across the north-east, at least eight million homes and businesses are without power because of the storm, says the US Department of Energy.
Sandy brought a record storm surge of almost 14 ft (4.2 m) to central Manhattan, well above the previous record of 10 ft during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said.
Maryland appeared to have the worst of the rain and snow – with falls of 12.5 in (32 cm) and 28 in respectively.
President Barack Obama was due to tour disaster areas in New Jersey on Wednesday with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
Chris Christie, a Republican and staunch supporter of Mitt Romney, went out of his way to praise the Democratic president for his handling of the storm.
“I spoke to the president three times yesterday,” Chris Christie told CNN.
“He’s been incredibly supportive and helpful to our state and not once did he bring up the election… If he’s not bringing it up, I’m certainly not going to bring it up.”
Mitt Romney resumed low-key campaigning on Tuesday, converting a rally into a storm relief event in the swing state of Ohio.
In other developments:
• US federal agencies in Washington DC will re-open on Wednesday
• Fire destroyed about 50 homes in the New York City borough of Queens
• More than 200 patients were evacuated from New York University’s Tisch Hospital after power went out and a backup generator failed
• Three nuclear reactors have been closed due to electrical supply and cooling system problems; a fourth was put on alert because of rising water.
In all, storm Sandy has claimed well over 100 lives, after killing nearly 70 people as it hit the Caribbean.
Britain was hit today by the worst storm since 1996, as the swirling remnants of Hurricane Katia have crossed the Atlantic and reached the land in the morning, sweeping across large swathes of the country.
Weather forecasters warned that gusts of up to 80 mph (c 135 km/h) would batter buildings, uproot trees and cause travel chaos.
They also issued urgent weather alerts for Scotland, Northern Ireland, the North East, North West and parts of the Midlands and Wales as the storm prepares to make its way eastwards.
Hurricane Katia's remnants hit Britain this morning
High speeds winds will be accompanied by heavy rain and the Environment Agency has issued several flood alerts for inland and coastal areas.
Wind speeds were increasing as the hurricane Katia remnants approached, forcing the cancellation of high speed ferries to France from Portsmouth.
According to Brittany Ferries, the company was scrapping its high speed ferries on two crossings scheduled from Portsmouth to Cherbourg today.
Safety regulations state that when waves reach a height of 10 feet (about 3 meters) or more the high speed crossings must not go ahead.
A Brittany Ferries spokesman said it hopes to have all services operating as usual by tomorrow.
Another alert – which warns that flooding is possible – has been issued along the North Sea coast in Yorkshire between Bridlington and Barmston with people being told to be aware of overtopping spray and waves at high tide.
The western coast of Anglesey has also been issued with an alert with waves of up to two metres high expected to lash certain areas, while water levels at Derwent Water, Cumbria, remain high.
According to the Met Office, the South East and South West will largely escape its wrath, but wind speeds are still expected to reach up to 50 mph in places.
Weather forecasters issued a yellow alert, warning people to be on their guard, for more than half of the country and placed several areas on amber alert – the second-highest of four levels.
British weather forecasters warned that gusts of up to 80 mph (c 135 kmh) would batter buildings, uproot trees and cause travel chaos
Other warnings said the storm could disrupt road and rail networks and damage buildings, and trees could be uprooted.
The worst conditions will be in northern and western parts of England and central and southern Scotland. The Environment Agency issued flood alerts for the North East, North West and Wales.
All coastal areas are said to be at greatest risk of flooding with strong winds to gales, large waves and a surge coinciding with high tides.
The storm will continue into tomorrow before petering out on Wednesday. Homeowners were warned to check for loose tiles and bring garden furniture indoors to help prevent flying debris.
Billy Payne, forecaster for MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said:
“The brunt of the the wind will go through central and southern Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern England and North Wales.
“Gusts are from 60-70mph in some places, possibly higher, especially in exposed places in parts of western Scotland like the islands and hilly areas.
“It will be quite windy in the south (of England) too with gusts of 40-50mph.
“There will be quite a lot of rain, perhaps heavy outbreaks over the next couple of days.
“The heavy rain will be mostly confined to the north and west of Scotland today and tomorrow. There is a risk of some flooding in north-west Scotland with the high rainfall totals.”
Ferry services and transport routes were already reporting disruption this morning.
Although the hurricane Katia has been downgraded, it still seems to create the worst storms since 1996 when Hurricane Lili brought 90 mph winds to these shores.
Met Office forecaster Tom Morgan said:
“In areas with amber warnings there will be 60-70mph gusts in many places and a chance of 80mph in a few exposed locations.”
The high speeds winds will be accompanied by scattered rain and some hail storms on the east and south coasts.
Despite the harsh conditions, parts of the South East are expected reach 21C (69F) this afternoon, but wind speeds could reach 50 mph.
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