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Company News
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When Is a Flood a Flood?
Exactly what does it take for water damage to be considered a flood in the terminology of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)? The answer might surprise you.
Flooding is a common event, The nightly news brings us pictures of raging rivers and inundated streets-trademarks of major flood events-but rarely are we aware of the many smaller, localized incidents that can be devastating to a neighborhood or a community.
The NFIP defines a flood as "a general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of normally dry land area from the overflow of inland or tidal water or the unusually and rapid accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any source."
The first part of the definition stipulates the need for standing water (inundation), eliminating groundwater seepage as a flood event. No help here for leaky basements.
It's the second part of the definition that's commonly misunderstood. Althrough flooding does occur from the overflow of a body of water such as a stream, river, or lake, it can also occur from a multitude of other sources. Both the ruptured water storage tank, for example, that recently inundated a California town, and the broken water main in Baltimore that knocked 17 houses from their foundations were considered flood events, as would be a ruptured above ground pool in your neighboohd that inundated several of your neighbors' homes.
This brings us to the second qualification for a flood. The event must be what the NFIP refers to as a "general condition of flooding," which simply means that more than one premises must be inundated by water from any source (two houses at the end of of the cul-de-sac, for example, that are flooded because the storm drain is blocked and the runoff flows into the living rooms instead of the storm drain).
When flooding is confined to only one premises, it must be displaced over at least two acres. Under "losses not covered," the policy langugage reads specifically "a loss from a flood which is confined to the premises on which your insured property (building or personal property) is located, unless the flood is displaced over two acres of the premises." Certainly this displacement would be of concern in the wide, open spaces of Texas or Montana.
Whether from overflowing rivers or broken water mains, flooding is far more frequent in our communities than we hear about in the news.
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