Morrisville, Vermont

... Record high temperature set at Massena...

a record high temperature of 61 degrees was set at Richards Field
in Massena New York yesterday. This breaks the old record of 59 set
in 1990.

... Flood safety awareness week continues with determining flood risk
and flood insurance...

In 1968... Congress created the National flood insurance program... or
nfip... in response to the rising cost of taxpayer funded disaster
relief for flood victims and the increasing amount of damage caused
by floods. Flood insurance is designed to provide an alternative to
disaster assistance to reduce the escalating costs of repairing
damage to buildings and their contents caused by floods. Only about
one quarter of the homes in the most vulnerable areas are insured
against flood loss... according to the federal insurance
administration. In those areas... flooding is 26 times more likely to
occur than a fire during the course of a typical 30 year mortgage.

Nearly 20,000 communities across the United States and its
territories participate in the nfip by adopting and enforcing flood
plain management ordinances to reduce future flood damage. In
exchange... the nfip makes federally backed flood insurance available
to homeowners... renters... and business owners in these communities.
Community participation in the nfip is voluntary.

Flood damage is reduced by nearly one billion dollars a year through
communities implementing sound flood plain management requirements
and property owners purchasing flood insurance. Additionally...
buildings constructed in compliance with nfip building standards
suffer approximately 80 percent less damage annually than those not
built in compliance.

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 severe weather related event... an average of 4.6
billion dollars a year in the past 20 years.

National flood insurance can be purchased from private insurance
companies and agents. There are over 100 insurance companies that
sell National flood insurance coverage... in addition to some 60,000
independent insurance agents.

If the seller of the property has flood insurance coverage on the
building... that policy can be assigned to the buyer at the time of
closing. If the 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.

Anyone can Purchase National flood insurance... if your community
participates in the National flood insurance program. Under the
National flood insurance act... lenders must require borrowers whose
property is located within a special flood hazard area to Purchase
flood insurance as a condition of receiving a federally regulated
mortgage loan. You can get more information on the National flood
insurance program at www.Floodsmart.Gov