Flood Insurance Offers Line Of Defense Against Rising Waters

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El Niño's sister weather system brings colder instead of warmer water ocean patterns, but she can pack a wallop of wet weather just as hard as her brother.

The National Centers for Environmental Prediction does expect La Niña to spawn a wetter-than-normal weather pattern from December through March for parts of the middle Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and the central Great Lakes region.

If you live in those areas that means the next flood could be in your neighborhood and flood insurance could be your first and last line of financial defense against rising waters.

Under the Flood Disaster Act of 1973, flood insurance coverage is mandatory if your home is in a federally designated high flood risk zone and you are signing for mortgage insured by the federal government. The insurance is also mandatory to obtain eligibility for some Federal Emergency Management Agency federal disaster assistance after a presidentially declared major disaster.

What does it cover?

Flood insurance is a special policy backed by the federal government, with cooperation from local communities and private insurance companies.

The National Flood Insurance Program defines flooding in part as "a general and temporary condition during which the surface of normally dry land is partially or completely inundated."

A basic flood insurance policy covers your home's foundation, flooring and walls. Separate insurance is available for your contents, but it isn't mandatory. The structure and contents of garages, sheds and similar structures can be insured separately too, but only up to 10 percent of the policy limit.

You can purchase flood insurance even if you aren't in a high flood risk zone, provided your community is a member of the National Flood Insurance Program. Most are.

Available through your homeowners insurance company, flood insurance costs an average premium of only $350 a year and you might want to consider a policy.

Who gets flooded?

Flooding doesn't just happen to people who live on river banks. President Clinton on Oct. 15 declared three counties each in Missouri and Kansas as disaster areas, due to flooding and other weather events.

Some 10 million households nationwide are in a flood plain -- though not necessarily a flood risk zone where insurance is mandatory -- but only one in three are covered by insurance. Flooding is 26 times more likely to occur than a fire, however, over the course of a typical 30-year mortgage.

Residents in less hazardous zones, are even less likely to have flood insurance, but they also underestimate the risk. One in three claims paid out for flood damage come from the low- and moderate-risk zones.

Premium reductions and waivers

Participating communities that build U.S. Army Corp of Engineers-certified dams, dikes, berms and other major flood abatement structures or go to the expense of reexamining elevations and flood maps sometimes can get a waiver from the required insurance. Program participants also use open space preservation techniques, drainage system improvements, newly built flood abatement structures and offer public education to reduce the effects of a flood. As a result, premiums are discounted from 5 to 45 percent.

Some homeowners in high risk zones already meet requirements that make them eligible for reduced premiums, perhaps a full waiver. But property owners who believe their property is topographically high enough must pay $500 or more for a land survey, subsequent flood elevation certificate and, if the lender doesn't accept the certificate, a FEMA map revision, to seek an elevation waiver.

Today's developers building in a high risk area often construct their project at an elevation that will grant future homeowners a waiver. Individual homeowners who want to spend tens of thousands of dollars to ''lift'' their homes high enough above the high flood risk zone can also obtain a waiver.

Finally, many flood related losses not covered by insurance are tax-deductible.