Need flood insurance?
If you lived, say, on a hill in downtown Seattle, would you need flood insurance? That seems like a silly question, but the answer might be yes! A onetime boss of mine owned a multimillion dollar house in Seattle that was well above sea level. However, one extremely rainy month his house slid down the hill and collided head on with his neighbor’s house. None of this was covered by insurance as the damage was caused by the movement of water.
My boss had to rebuild his house out of pocket and the lesson I learned is that you don’t have to live next to the Mississippi River to need flood insurance. If you think you have any chance of a significant amount of water causing a problem with your house, get flood insurance. The insurance will protect you from heavy or prolonged rains, coastal storm surge, snow melt, blocked storm drainage systems, levee dam failure, or other causes. The government will give you an idea of how likely it is that your house will be flooded at floodsmart.gov as well as connect you to an insurance agent that sells flood insurance. However, the government won’t tell you if your house is in danger from floods other than from rivers and other bodies of water.
