Houston, a national tragedy

greg nr

greg nr

Well-Known Member
schuylaar said:
have any of you purchased flood insurance?
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I looked into it when we had our house built. I don't live in in a flood zone, and am ~350 ft asl. But I wanted to look at it anyway just for general storm damage. It wasn't offered at any price. I couldn't find any company that would offer a policy or rider.

Now that was 25 years ago, and I'm not in a market that has a lot of need for hurricane specific coverage, so it may just be a geo-quirk.

As it turns out I could have used it when the groundwater rose during spring runoff and filled my basement. But it wasn't a devastating loss. We never even had to shut power off or move out. But it just shows you a lot of people could use the coverage, which is why it is expensive and hard to find. People file very costly claims on a regular basis. Not really something insurance is designed for.

Insurance works best when only a small percentage of plan holders file claims, allowing the risk to be spread out over a large population.

It's kind of like a lottery program. If too many people win, the prizes are going to be very small and the tickets will be expensive.
 
S

schuylaar

Well-Known Member
greg nr said:
I looked into it when we had our house built. I don't live in in a flood zone, and am ~350 ft asl. But I wanted to look at it anyway just for general storm damage. It wasn't offered at any price. I couldn't find any company that would offer a policy or rider.

Now that was 25 years ago, and I'm not in a market that has a lot of need for hurricane specific coverage, so it may just be a geo-quirk.

As it turns out I could have used it when the groundwater rose during spring runoff and filled my basement. But it wasn't a devastating loss. We never even had to shut power off or move out. But it just shows you a lot of people could use the coverage, which is why it is expensive and hard to find. People file very costly claims on a regular basis. Not really something insurance is designed for.

Insurance works best when only a small percentage of plan holders file claims, allowing the risk to be spread out over a large population.

It's kind of like a lottery program. If too many people win, the prizes are going to be very small and the tickets will be expensive.
Click to expand...
i've purchased it with every home, i'm in a flood zone. it's mandatory. It's not mandatory if you don't live in a flood zone. That was my point.
 
Fogdog

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
schuylaar said:
i've purchased it with every home, i'm in a flood zone. it's mandatory. It's not mandatory if you don't live in a flood zone. That was my point.
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I live in a flood zone too. It was required by the bank when I bought the house. Mortgage is completely paid off now. No longer required but we still have it. It's not cheap, about $1600 and I hope to never need it. But I just consider it part of the expense of living in such a nice place.

Being in a "hundred year" floodplain is a pain in the ass because special permitting and engineering has to be done for any additions or outbuildings. The fees alone would choke a horse.

I was pretty irritated when I heard Trump axed the budget to update those maps. The FEMA map is out of date and their projections seem unworldly to me. We've had "hundred year" rainfall and flooding never even got close to the house, much less projections that would put my house under five feet of water and flood about half the bottom land in the Willamette Valley. Then again, when has Trump not irritated?

My problems are small beer. My heart goes out to those in Houston. Much misery and more ahead.
 
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