As I was doing research on catastrophes the other day, I ran into a surprising fact:
Did you know that the risk for an average home to be destroyed in a fire is about 10%, while the risk of the same home to be destroyed in a flood is about 26%?
Who would have thought! But, how is that possible?
Flooding doesn’t always occur near rivers and streams, but also happens due to old or blocked drainage systems, fast accumulation of water due to rain or snowmelt, or changes in topography that keep surface water from being absorbed by the ground. Yes, backup of surface waters on two or more adjacent properties qualifies as a ‘flood’. In fact, only about 25% of all flood losses occur in actual high-risk flood zones; the rest, about 75%, happen in low-risk flood zones.
(And no, none of these is covered by a standard homeowner’s policy.)
To learn the flood risk of your property, take part in the One-Step-Flood-Risk-Profile at http://www.floodsmart.gov/.