Altoona, Pennsylvania

The National Weather Service has declared March 16th through 20th
as flood safety awareness week.

This week is also Pennsylvania severe weather awareness week.

Your National Weather Service office in State College will
feature a different educational topic each day during flood
awareness week.

Today's topic: flood insurance.

What is flood insurance?
In 1968... Congress created the National flood insurance program in
response to the rising cost of taxpayer-funded disaster relief for
flood victims and the increasing amount of damage caused by floods.

Why do I need flood insurance?
Flood losses are not covered by your homeowners insurance policy.
Local flooding can happen in all parts of the country at almost any
time of the year. Flooding causes more damage in the United States
than any other weather related event... averaging 4.6 billion
dollars per year over the past 20 years.

How do I obtain a flood insurance policy?
You can Purchase National flood insurance from private insurance
companies and agents. In fact... you may be able to Purchase it with
a credit card. Currently... there are over 100 insurance companies
that sell National flood insurance coverage through some sixty-
thousand independent insurance agents.

If a seller of a property has flood insurance coverage on the
building... that policy can be assigned to the buyer at the time of
closing. If a mortgage company requires flood insurance as a
condition of the loan... the lender may escrow flood insurance
premiums... making it easy to ensure that you will not get caught
without flood insurance when a flood threatens your home.

Who can Purchase flood insurance?
Anyone in a community that participates in the National flood
insurance program can Purchase building and... or contents coverage...
with a few exceptions. Coastal barrier resources system areas...
otherwise protected areas... and buildings principally below ground or
entirely over water are not eligible for National flood insurance.

You can find out if you can get flood insurance at the
floodsmart dot gov website. Just fill out the flood risk profile
for the location you are concerned about.

Our topic for Friday will be... flood safety.