Coverage guide · flood

Flood, the peril a standard homeowners policy does not cover

Every other guide on this site is about how much. Flood is about whether, and the City of Roseville answers that on its own flood preparedness page without a hedge: the standard homeowner’s insurance policy does not cover flood damage. The California Department of Insurance says the same thing from the other direction, that insurance coverage for losses resulting from floods is generally not provided in a homeowners or renters policy. This is the one page on this site where the first task is buying a separate contract rather than reading an existing one.

Two basins, seven creeks, and what the city says it has mapped

The city describes itself as lying within portions of two major drainage basins, the Pleasant Grove Creek Basin and the Dry Creek Basin. Pleasant Grove Creek and its tributaries drain most of the western and central areas; the Dry Creek basin drains the rest. The Dry Creek system has year-round flows in its major watercourses while the Pleasant Grove system is intermittent, with only seasonal flows. Seven creeks draining the 80-square-mile Upper Dry Creek Basin pass through and join within the city limits, and the city notes that the basin does not include runoff from snow melt in the Sierras.

On extent, the city states that less than seven percent of property within the City of Roseville is affected by flooding and that most of this property is open space, meaning vacant land. It also states that portions of the city lie within a flood hazard area as was evidenced by the 1986 and 1995 floods; its flood facts page records 209 structures flooded in 1986 and 358 in 1995, with more intense rainfall in 1995 than in 1986. Its flood warning system, the city says, is designed to provide residents with up to a three hour advance warning of flooding within the 100-year floodplain — while cautioning in the same breath that flooding can occur quickly and without much prior warning.

The program that writes the policy

The contract itself comes from the National Flood Insurance Program, which Congress created in 1968 in response to the rising cost of taxpayer funded disaster relief for flood victims and the increasing amount of damage caused by floods. Administered by FEMA, the Department of Insurance explains, the program makes federally backed flood insurance available in communities that adopt and enforce floodplain management ordinances to reduce future flood losses, and it lets homeowners and renters insure their residences and contents against direct physical loss by flood, loss resulting from flood-related erosion, and damage caused by mudslide.

The program states its maximum amounts plainly. The maximum amounts for a single-family home are $250,000 for the structure and $100,000 for its contents, and renters may also purchase up to $100,000 of coverage for their personal belongings. Roseville states that low cost flood insurance is available to Roseville property owners and renters because Roseville is an NFIP member with a floodplain management program, and adds a line that catches people out: you do not have to live in the floodplain to qualify for flood insurance. It also reports that approximately 30% of all flood insurance claims occur outside of the Special Flood Hazard Area.

The waiting period, and why it is a calendar problem

The timing rule is the one worth acting on today rather than filing. Generally, the city writes, there is a 30-day waiting period for this policy to become effective, so do not wait until the last minute to apply. The city’s advice built around that is unglamorous and concrete: keep your policies and a list of personal property somewhere safe such as a safety deposit box, and know the name and location of the agent who issued them. The instruction the city repeats is the whole point of the rule: do not get caught applying for flood insurance the day before the storm.

What the city has built, and what its rating means

Roseville publishes a long list of flood control work completed since 1986, and it records that by implementing good floodplain management practices the city became the first community in the nation to receive the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Community Rating System highest rating of Class 1. The city has been actively involved with the CRS program since 1992, which rates communities on public information, mapping and regulatory standards, flood damage reduction, and flood preparedness. On what the rating is worth to a policyholder, the city states that it allows Roseville property owners up to a 45 percent discount on their flood insurance premiums. That is the city’s statement about a federal program, not a quotation: what any particular policy costs is settled when it is written.