Where Harvey is hitting hardest, 80 percent lack flood insurance

[octoberlib]

The vast majority of homeowners in the area devastated by Hurricane Harvey lack flood insurance, leaving many who escaped the storm with little financial help to rebuild their homes and lives.

“I wish I had flood insurance now,” lamented Leroy Moore, a 58-year-old whose home in northeast Houston filled with water. He cancelled his flood policy when it grew too expensive. He and his wife were rescued from the rising waters on Sunday by National Guard troops and are now sleeping in a church. “When it's a choice to make between things and life, sometimes you've just got to let the things go and hang on to life.”

Regular home insurance covers wind damage, but not flooding. Homeowners have to purchase separate flood insurance policies from the government-run National Flood Insurance Program, which will end in late September unless Congress renews it. In Texas, the average cost for a NFIP plan is $500 a year, but it can rise to more than $2,000 for homes inside a floodplain.

Everyone else who loses their home to flooding will be dependent on private charity and government aid, especially grants from Federal Emergency Management AgencyBut FEMA's help is a poor substitute for flood insurance: The grants, intended to help residents rebuild homes and cover hotel stays until permanent housing is available, are capped at $33,300. Most receive significantly less. Funds will be even tighter if Congress doesn't provide additional emergency funding for Texas soon.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/29/where-harvey-is-hitting-hardest-four-out-of-five-homeowners-lack-flood-insurance/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_harveyinsurance-222pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.dc9c1df6af42

[BigmanPigman]

1. I bet they sure are glad they voted for Cruz.

Oh wait, urban areas are blue. I wonder if Cruz will be reelected?

[octoberlib]

2. We need more urban areas.

[Igel]

3. They voted blue before, that means "not for Cruz."

Who knows is Cruz is going to be re-elected.

Look at it this way: In the '00s minority home ownership increased greatly, until in 2009 a lot of black and Latino homeowners with relatively large, new mortgages found themselves underwater. It's a bad pun, but still true that many of those who survived 2009 now have property values reduced because of flood damage, and find themselves underwater.

And while urban areas are blue, it's not like Houston's 100% blue. This won't change the voters' minds unless the clean up is (a) a disaster in its own right and (b) it's the state and not the federal government that screws up. Since FEMA is federal, as long as Abbot gets help out the door (R) voters will be okay.

No, nobody I know associates the presidency with local politics. Even when Bush II was in office, there was DC and there was Texas. Russian peasants used to say that God was far but the tsar was near. That's DC and Austin.

[MichMan]

4. Rolled the dice and lost

If flood insurance was available and people refused to buy it, they should not expect that their losses will still be covered. While I have sympathy for their loss, unfortunately they rolled the dice and lost.

According to the article, Mr. Moore has owned his home for 32 years and when flood insurance went up to $300/yr he dropped it. That's only $25 per month. Hopefully, he can get a low interest loan and rebuild or repair his home.

[roamer65]

5. A sizable amount of housing will not be rebuilt.

It will be hard to get loans to rebuild in these flood and hurricane prone areas.