{"id":110848,"date":"2024-10-05T23:32:07","date_gmt":"2024-10-05T16:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=110848"},"modified":"2024-10-05T23:32:07","modified_gmt":"2024-10-05T16:32:07","slug":"many-homeowners-got-washed-out-by-hurricane-helene-but-few-have-flood-insurance-to-cover-the-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=110848","title":{"rendered":"Many homeowners got washed out by Hurricane Helene but few have flood insurance to cover the damage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A week after Hurricane Helene overwhelmed the Southeastern U.S., homeowners hit the hardest are grappling with how they could possibly pay for the flood damage from one of the deadliest storms to hit the mainland in recent history.<\/p>\n<p>The Category 4 storm that first struck Florida\u2019s Gulf Coast on September 26 has <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/rainfall-helene-carolina-tennessee-georgia-climate-change-flood-fcba634e14a0ffa1a8e1fa85d7e2b390\">dumped trillions of gallons of water<\/a><\/span> across several states, leaving a catastrophic trail of destruction that spans hundreds of miles inland. More than 200 people have died in what is now the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina, according to statistics from the National Hurricane Center.<\/p>\n<p>Western North Carolina and the Asheville area were <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/climate-change-hurricane-helene-flooding-north-carolina-f49b2a6bf2b549473e0211f883332592\">hit especially hard<\/a><\/span>, with flooding that wiped out buildings, roads, utilities and land in a way that nobody expected, let alone prepared for. Inland areas in parts of Georgia and Tennessee were also washed out.<\/p>\n<p>The Oak Forest neighborhood in south Asheville lives up to its name, with trees towering over 1960s era ranch-style houses on large lots. But on Sept. 27, as Helene\u2019s remnants swept through western north Carolina, many of those trees came crashing down, sometimes landing on houses.<\/p>\n<p>Julianne Johnson said she was coming upstairs from the basement to help her 5-year-old son pick out clothes that day when her husband began to yell that a giant oak was falling diagonally across the yard. The tree mostly missed the house, but still crumpled part of a metal porch and damaged the roof. Then, Johnson said, her basement flooded. <\/p>\n<p>On Friday, there was a blue tarp being held on the roof with a brick. Sodden carpet that the family torn out lay on the side of the house, waiting to go to the landfill. With no cell phone service or internet access, Johnson said she couldn\u2019t file a home insurance claim until four days after the storm.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt took me a while to make that call,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t have an adjuster yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roof and tree damage are likely to be covered by the average home insurance policy. But Johnson, like many homeowners, doesn\u2019t have flood insurance and she\u2019s not certain how she\u2019ll pay for that part of the damage. <\/p>\n<p>Those recovering from the storm may be surprised to learn flood damage is a completely separate thing. Insurance professionals and experts have long warned that home insurance typically does not cover flood damage to the home, even as they espouse that flooding can happen anywhere that rains. That\u2019s because flooding isn\u2019t just sea water seeping into the land \u2013 it\u2019s also water from banks, as well as mudflow and torrential rains.<\/p>\n<p>But most private insurance companies don\u2019t carry flood insurance, leaving the National Flood Insurance Program run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as the primary provider for that coverage for residential homes. Congress created the federal flood insurance program more than 50 years ago when many private insurers stopped offering policies in high-risk areas. <\/p>\n<p>North Carolina has 129,933 such policies in force, according to FEMA\u2019s latest data, though most of that protection will likely be concentrated on the coast rather than in the Blue Ridge Mountains area where Helene caused the most damage. Florida, in comparison, has about 1.7 million flood policies in place statewide.<\/p>\n<p>Charlotte Hicks, a flood insurance expert in North Carolina who has led flood risk training and educational outreach for the state\u2019s Department of Insurance, said the reality is that many Helene survivors will never be made whole. Without flood insurance, some people may be able to rebuild with the help of charities but most others will be left to fend for themselves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere will absolutely be people who will be financially devasted by this event,\u201d Hicks said. \u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some may go into foreclosure or bankruptcy. Entire neighborhoods will likely never be rebuilt. There\u2019s been water damage across the board, Hicks said, and for some, mudslides have even taken the land upon which their house once stood.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Helene is turning out to be a fairly manageable disaster for the private home insurance market because those plans generally only serve to cover wind damage from hurricanes. <\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a relief for the industry, which has been under increasing <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/homeowners-insurance-climate-change-wildfire-disasters-9c7129881f12ec478386e4b47c1acbbc\">strain from other intensifying climate disasters<\/a><\/span> such as wildfires and tornadoes. Nowhere is the shrinking private market due to climate instability more evident than in Florida, where many companies have already stopped selling policies \u2014 leaving the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corporation now the largest home insurer in the state.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Friedlander, spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, an industry group, said Helene is a \u201cvery manageable loss event,\u201d and estimates insurer losses will range from about $5 billion to $8 billion. That\u2019s compared to the insured losses from the Category 4 Hurricane Ian in September 2022 that was estimated in excess of $50 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Friedlander and other experts point out that less than 1% of the inland areas that sustained the most catastrophic flood damage were protected with flood insurance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is very common in inland communities across the country,\u201d Friedlander said. \u201c <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/midwestern-storms-severe-weather-flood-insurance-510cc90bb5d6b46d6a4229042702f52d\">Lack of flood insurance<\/a><\/span> is a major insurance gap in the U.S., as only about 6% of homeowners carry the coverage, mostly in coastal counties.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Amy Bach, executive director of the consumer advocacy group United Policyholders, said the images of the flood destruction in North Carolina shook her despite decades of seeing challenging recovery faced by victims of natural disasters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a pretty serious situation here in terms of people disappointed. They are going to be disappointed in their insurers and they are going to be disappointed in FEMA,\u201d Bach said. \u201cFEMA cannot match the kind of dollars private insurers are supposed to be contributing to the recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This week, FEMA announced it could meet the immediate needs of Helene but <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/hurricane-helene-congress-fema-funding-5be4f18e00ce2b509d6830410cf2c1cb\">warned it doesn\u2019t have enough funding<\/a><\/span> to make it through the hurricane season, which runs June 1 to Nov. 30 though most hurricanes typically occur in September and October.<\/p>\n<p>Even if a homeowner does have it, FEMA\u2019s National Flood Insurance Program only covers up to $250,000 for single-family homes and $100,000 for contents.<\/p>\n<p>Bach said that along with homeowners educating themselves about what their policies do and don\u2019t cover, the solution is a national disaster insurance program that does for property insurance what the Affordable Care Act did for health insurance.<\/p>\n<p>After Hurricane Floyd in 1999, the state of North Carolina started requiring insurance agents to take a flood insurance class so they could properly advise their clients of the risk and policies available, Hicks said. The state also requires home insurance policies to clearly disclose that it does not cover flood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t stop nature from doing what nature is going to do,\u201d Hicks said. \u201cFor us to think it\u2019s never going to be this bad again would be a dangerous assumption. A lot of people underestimate their risk of flooding.\u201d <\/p>\n<h2>___<\/h2>\n<p>Associated Press Staff Writers Jeff Amy in Asheville, North Carolina, Lisa Leff in London and Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>\n  window.fbAsyncInit = function() {\n      FB.init({\n              appId : '870613919693099',\n          xfbml : true,\n          version : 'v2.9'\n      });\n  };\n  (function(d, s, id){\n     var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n     if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}\n     js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n     js.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\";\n     fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n   }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/hurricane-helene-flooding-insurance-water-damage-fema-disaster-recovery-07bbf25fba01c2fac5f66dd6ac56e0ee\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A week after Hurricane Helene overwhelmed the Southeastern U.S., homeowners hit the hardest are grappling with how they could possibly pay for the flood damage from one of the deadliest &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=110848\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8629],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}