Flood Insurance Myths and Facts

Flood Insurance Myths and Facts People who live on top of the hill dont need flood insurance. Not true, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and just one of the many myths surrounding the agencys National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). When it comes to flood insurance, not having the facts can literally cost you your lifes savings. Owners of both homes and businesses need to know the flood insurance myths and facts. Myth: You cant buy flood insurance if youre in a high-flood-risk area.Fact: If your community participates in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), you can buy National Flood Insurance no matter where you live. To find out if your community participates in the NFIP, visit FEMAs Community Status page. More communities qualify for the NFIP everyday. Myth: You cant buy flood insurance immediately before or during a flood.Fact: You can buy National Flood Insurance anytime - but the policy isnt effective until a 30-day waiting period after the first premium payment. However, this 30-day waiting period can be waived if the policy was purchased within 13 months of a flood map revision. If the initial flood insurance purchase was made during this 13-month period, then there is only a one-day waiting period. This one-day provision only applies when the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) is revised to show the building is now in a high-flood-risk area. Myth: Homeowners insurance policies cover flooding.Fact: Most home and business multi-peril policies do not cover flooding. Homeowners can include personal property coverage in their NFIP policy, and residential and commercial renters can purchase flood coverage for their contents. Business owners can buy flood insurance coverage for their buildings, inventory and contents. Myth: You cant buy flood insurance if your property has been flooded.Fact: As long as your community is in the NFIP, you are eligible to purchase flood insurance even after your home, apartment, or business has been flooded. Myth: If you do not live in a high-flood-risk area, you do not need flood insurance.Fact: All areas are susceptible to flooding. Nearly 25 percent of the NFIP claims come from outside high-flood-risk areas. Myth: National Flood Insurance can only be purchased through the NFIP directly.Fact: NFIP flood insurance is sold through private insurance companies and agents. The federal government backs it. Myth: The NFIP does not offer any type of basement coverage.Fact: Yes, it does. A basement, as defined by NFIP, is any building area with a floor below ground level on all sides. Basement improvements - finished walls, floors or ceilings - are not covered by flood insurance; nor are personal belongings, like furniture and other contents. But flood insurance does cover structural elements and essential equipment, provided it is connected to a power source (if required) and installed in its functioning location. According to a recent FEMA press release, items protected under building coverage include the following: sump pumps, well-water tanks and pumps, cisterns and the water inside, oil tanks and the oil inside, natural gas tanks and the gas inside, pumps or tanks used with solar energy, furnaces, water heaters, air conditioners, heat pumps, electrical junction and circuit breaker boxes (and their utility connections), foundation elements, stairways, staircases, elevators, dumbwaiters, unpainted drywall walls and ceilings (including fiberglass insulation), and cleanup expenses. Protected under content coverage are: clothes washers and dryers, as well as food freezers and the food inside them. The NFIP recommends both building and content coverage be purchased for the most comprehensive protection.

A Brief Timeline of Events in America from 1601-1625

A Brief Timeline of Events in America from 1601-1625 1601 Sir Walter Raleigh is imprisoned in the Tower of London for a plot against King James I. 1602 Captain Bartholomew Gosnold is the first Englishman to land on the New England coast. 1603 Roger Williams, the future founder of Rhode Island, is born. 1606 Virginia Company of London is granted a Royal Charter to settle in the New World. 1607 Jamestown is founded under the patent of the London Company.Captain John Smith meets Pocahontas. 1608 Captain John Smith writes A True Relation of Such Occurences and Accidents of Noate(sic) as Hath Hapned(sic) in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Collony(sic). 1609 English explorer Henry Hudson explores the Delaware Bay and Hudson River. 1610 Thomas West, Lord Delaware, was made Governor of Virginia.Henry Hudson discovers Hudson Bay. 1611 Henry Hudson dies after being put off his ship by mutineers. 1612 Captain John Smith writes A Map of Virginia.The Dutch use Manhattan as a fur trading center.Tobacco planted for the first time by English colonists in Virginia. 1613 English Colonists in Virginia destroy the French settlements at Port Royal, Nova Scotia. 1614 Sir Walter Raleigh writes The History of the World.Pocahontas marries John Rolfe. 1616 Sir Walter Raleigh released from the Tower of London.John Rolfe and Pocahontas travel to England. Pocahontas has been given the title Lady Rebecca.William Baffin discovers Baffin Bay while searching for a Northwest passage.Captain John Smith writes A Description of New England.A smallpox epidemic decimates the New England Native American population. 1617 Sir Walter Raleigh sets sail for Guiana.Pocahontas dies in Gravesend, United Kingdom. 1618 Sir Walter Raleigh returns to England and is executed. 1619 The first representative colonial assembly, the House of Burgesses, was formed in Virginia.First slaves in North America. 1620 Mayflower Compact was signed.Plymouth Colony founded in Plymouth, Massachusetts.John Carver was named the first governor of Plymouth Colony. 1621 Sir Francis Wyatt becomes the new governor of Virginia.English attempt to colonize Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.John Carver dies.The Dutch West Indies Company is chartered. 1622 William Bradford became the governor of Plymouth Colony. 1623 New Netherlands is organized in America.First English settlement in New Hampshire is founded by David Thomas. 1624 Virginia Companys charter is revoked.Virginia becomes a Crown Colony.Sir Francis Wyatt remains Governor of Virginia.George Fox is born who will become the founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers).Captain John Smith writes A General Historie(sic) of Virginia, the Summer Isles and New England.The Dutch settle in New Amsterdam. 1625 King James I dies and is succeeded by Charles I. Source Schlesinger, Jr., Arthur M., ed. The Almanac of American History. Barnes Nobles Books: Greenwich, CT, 1993.