Flood Insurance

[moparguy]

This is for the homeowners. If you dont have flood insurance , you really should consider buying some, I learned the hard way. I thought homeowners insurance covered flood loss, WOW WAS I WRONG AS HELL. Its been a few years since it happened , but in April of 2009 we had a SEVERE, SEVERE THUNGER STORM stall over our area, it dumped something like 5-6 inches in 3 hours. The ditches in front of my house are like 5 feet deep, that night they were full and we had 2 inches over the road it caused the sewage system to backup into my house, you got no idea how ****ed up you feel when you see this happening and cant stop it. The toilet and the bathtub were full and over flowing which caused my house to fill up with 3-4 inches of sewer water. After it all stopped we called Rainbow International to come clean the house, they got here about 5:30am( all the flooding started about 3:15am) and sucked up the water, ripped out the carpet, ripped out the linoleum, ripped out the base boards. It took 19 fans and 4 days to dry out the house. After all was said and done there was $40,000.00 dollars in damage to the house and a clean up bill for $7,000.00.( the total time they spent at the house made the bill come out to something like $600.00 an hour) It took all my I.R.A. savings to pay the cleaning bill, not including the $500.00 in taxes I had to pay for closing the I.R.A. account. So if you dont have flood insurance then you should really think hard about it. Dont be fooled into thinking you can sue the city for the damages, I tried and no lawyer would touch it, a city has govermental immunity to prevent them from having to pay these types of claims.Just something to think about.

[Dennis G]

I seem to recall that the insurance companies were dodging millions in claims from some of the hurricanes over the past few years, claiming much of the damage was due to tidal surge, flooding, etc. NOT the actual hurricane. If you had flood insurance, you were "okay", if not, you were screwed, as I recall anyway.

[Searcy]

Flood insurance is a good idea and it's cheap.

[capmaster]

This is an actual issue here in Germany, too. Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, and Germany were flooded during the past three weeks, and about half of the people here in Bavaria didn't have the appropriate insurances for house, private, and professional inventory, let alone production downtimes and lost output. Many other people appeared to be underinsured in the end. We just had luck here, we had brought all our equipment from our rehearsal room in the basement up to higher floor levels, but in the end the cellar stayed dry.

 

Musical equipment is a very special thing since the household contents insurance would pay only if the basement is part of the dwell, which is not the case for us. And of course, you would have to increase the agreed sum insured. Dedicated musical instrument insurances cost an arm and a leg here, they pay for water, fire, loss, theft and vandalism but won't pay if the equipment is in a locked car without further supervision by watchmen. Moreover, they basically don't serve mixing boards and cables.

[moparguy]

Just about to tear out the back 2 bedrooms and put in sheetrock. Doing it yourself saves money for sure but its ALOT of work. We already did the bathroom, hallway and spare room so far. I should have already done them by now, I dont have an excuse except for being lazy. Its gonna cost $1000.00 to have someone tape and float everything. Owning a house is expensive!!!!!

[bonzoboy]

Our garden pond has overflowed several times over the years during torrential rainfalls and has washed out our driveway and the lane we're on.There is no danger of our house being affected because we are on a little hillock and there would have to be a deluge of Biblical proportions.Anyone who lives on a flood plain or an area that's at a low elevation and has a body of water nearby,should definitely have flood insurance-if they can get it.I believe that it's very expensive if not impossible to get coverage in an area that's particularly susceptable to flooding or that has a history of flooding.Insurance companies have had to pay out billions in claims since Katrina,Igor and other hurricanes in the not too distant past.They are now really apprehensive about giving homeowners who live in areas at a high risk of flooding,flood coverage and if they did cover such a dwelling the premiums would probably be prohibitive.

[Searcy]

Actually, insurance companies in the U.S.A. don't sell flood insurance. They will broker the deal for you but flood insurance here is nationalized and is controlled by the federal government these days. When you file a claim it doesn't come out of the insurance companies pocket.

 

Around here if you live in a flood plane and have filed claims before you will likely be asked to jack your house up before it can be insured again.

 

Here's a shot of my living room from 2010. It's not in a flood plain.

 

 

[moparguy]

Actually, insurance companies in the U.S.A. don't sell flood insurance. They will broker the deal for you but flood insurance here is nationalized and is controlled by the federal government these days. When you file a claim it doesn't come out of the insurance companies pocket.

 

Around here if you live in a flood plane and have filed claims before you will likely be asked to jack your house up before it can be insured again.

 

Here's a shot of my living room from 2010. It's not in a flood plain.

 

 

Wow, I feel for you. Did you have flood insurance? At least yours was rain water, mine was **** water. Damn that is alot of water, I didnt have any household content loss either, looks like you had to start over completely. The bad part about mine is that I had city records showing that I had them come out 13 times in 7 years because of sewer problems whenever it rained and they still denied any relief. I had 2 city council members at my house to show them and it didnt make any difference, they act concerned and they tell you what you want to hear and then leave you hanging. Im not in a flood plain either. I really hope you had insurance for that because it looks like it was a total loss. I had pictures but I put them in with the damage claim form the city gave me and they kept them.

[deeman]

Wow, I feel for you. Did you have flood insurance? At least yours was rain water, mine was **** water. Damn that is alot of water, I didnt have any household content loss either, looks like you had to start over completely. The bad part about mine is that I had city records showing that I had them come out 13 times in 7 years because of sewer problems whenever it rained and they still denied any relief. I had 2 city council members at my house to show them and it didnt make any difference, they act concerned and they tell you what you want to hear and then leave you hanging. Im not in a flood plain either. I really hope you had insurance for that because it looks like it was a total loss. I had pictures but I put them in with the damage claim form the city gave me and they kept them.

 

I just bought a 90 year old house in suburban chicago. About 2-3 weeks ago our basement flooded from storm/sewer water comming up through the floor drain. (It looked like a fountain). Luckily the basement was unfinished and we had an extra pump so we pumped out the water before it reached a level where it reached the boiler or the washer/dryer. $2,500 later, a plumber put a check valve on the drains going out of the house in the basement, cemented over the floor drain, put in a new sump pump and battery back-up system (we get fairly occasional power outages in storms) and put in a new floor drain that dumps directly into the sump pit.

 

Hopefully that takes care of the flooding, but will still have the occasional seepage. It'll be another 5 grand i'm sure to water proof the basement.

[moparguy]

I just bought a 90 year old house in suburban chicago. About 2-3 weeks ago our basement flooded from storm/sewer water comming up through the floor drain. (It looked like a fountain). Luckily the basement was unfinished and we had an extra pump so we pumped out the water before it reached a level where it reached the boiler or the washer/dryer. $2,500 later, a plumber put a check valve on the drains going out of the house in the basement, cemented over the floor drain, put in a new sump pump and battery back-up system (we get fairly occasional power outages in storms) and put in a new floor drain that dumps directly into the sump pit.

 

Hopefully that takes care of the flooding, but will still have the occasional seepage. It'll be another 5 grand i'm sure to water proof the basement.

I had replaced the private side sewer line from the house to the sewer line, they said that would stop my problem, $700.00 later and I still had sewer prblems, everytime it rained over 1.5 inches the toilet would bubble and all water related activities had to stop i.e. couldnt flush the toilet , or wash clothes , or take a shower., after the flood I paid for a check valve like your describing and it lessened the problem but if it rained you still couldnt flush the toilet because, the water pushing the check valve shut so water couldnt come in was also keeping water from going out. Then to top it all off, the city came and rerouted the sewer line and connected it to a different place about 1500 feet behind my house, that solved everything, havent had a problem since but that just wasted my $700.00 new sewer line and $150.00 new check valve. Those assholes knew it was their fault or they wouldnt have rerouted the sewer line, and they tore up the lawn in front and on the side of my house. I guess I shouldnt ***** anymore , at tleast they finally fixed the problem, even if it took 40 grand of the value of my house

[Searcy]

No, we didn't have any flood insurance because we were in a flood plane. We have it now. Because the flood waters hung around a few days the septic tank did back up into the house. The flood about $80,000 worth of damage to the house. WE got a check from FEMA for $20,000 and I was glad to have that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tazzboy]

No, we didn't have any flood insurance because we were in a flood plane. We have it now. Because the flood waters hung around a few days the septic tank did back up into the house. The flood about $80,000 worth of damage to the house. WE got a check from FEMA for $20,000 and I was glad to have that.

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVbz47ZAvWo

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67s7ZYZn1S0

 

I gather that was back 3 years ago in may http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Tennessee_floods

[Searcy]

That would be the one. We are almost done with the rebuild... and probably always will be.

[milod]

Yeah, my experience with such stuff, both personal and professional, is that the flood insurance is a good deal, and quite cheap if you are not in a flood plain.

 

The problem as our Mopar guy notes, to me is that insurance companies may engage in that gamesmanship that leaves the homeowner - even renter (check on that) behind the eight ball.

 

Sewer disasters happen; if during heavy rains and high water levels, etc., the definitions of "flood" can be gamed by regular insurance firms/policies. Also, it's not uncommon for a firm to pay for losses such as mentioned above, then drop the insured party like a hot potato.

 

Yes, in the U.S. flood insurance is nationalized, but can be purchased through many, if not most agents who would cover homes.

 

m

[badbluesplayer]

The best thing about flood insurance is that it covers the kind of water problems that your homeowner's or renter's insurance doesn't cover. So you have "umbrella" coverage and you don't have to worry about exactly who covers what when. Like if you had some flooding from the nearby creek but you also had some leaking gutters and maybe water seeping into your house all during the same storm or maybe during back to back storms during the same week. You don't have to worry about whether you're covered.

[milod]

Yup on the value of the insurance.

 

From personal experience at my Mom's house... if that sewer decides to make like a geyser in the basement... it's past yuck into super-yuck. Cleaning it, and anything you wanna keep, is neither cheap nor easy. I reeeaally feel for our Moparguy and any others who have had to learn such things first hand.

 

I also feel for those hit by flooding of any sort, but river flooding can be especially yucky if one considers the rising water may well have passed through feedlots and absorbed various other "stuff" from petroleum to pesticides.

 

m

[moparguy]

Here is the demo so far

[Searcy]

the plus side it that you get to build it back however you like.