FEMA Flood Insurance Changes Go into Effect this Friday

Amanda Lojewski | September 27, 2021

The Federal Emergency Management Agency calls the program Risk Rating 2.0. The new program will change the way flood insurance rates are calculated and how customers are charged.

If you are a Southwest Florida resident or regular then you may know in Cape Coral when it rains, typically it floods.

“We are not in a flood zone,” said John Walker of Cape Coral. 

Even though Walker said his neighborhood isn’t known for flooding, one year his neighborhood was part of an evacuation zone. The next year, Walker decided to get flood insurance just in case.

“If we were in a mandatory evac zone one time it can happen a second time,” said Walker.

What Walker did, is exactly what Stacey Giulianti, co-founder of Florida Peninsula Insurance, said all homeowners should do.

“Twenty percent or more flooding occurs in places that it’s not supposed to flood right whatever not supposed to flood means but it does because this is Florida and we flood everywhere,” said Giulianti.

So what does a typical Floridian pay for flood insurance? Those policies on average in Florida are about $45 a month, that’s to cover your house and the items inside.

Now with FEMA changing how it evaluates flood rates, some state residents could save as much as $100 a month in some cases. However, the same no longer applies to those now considered to live in higher-risk areas.

“There’s going to be a large number of people that are going to see an increase but it’s going to be relatively small, about $10-20 a month,”  said Nick VinZant, a senior research analyst for QuoteWizard by LendingTree. He said the system is broken and climate change is the reason for that.

“In some cases, FEMA maps are 40-50 years old and we’re seeing what used to be 100-year floods, happening in some cases every 5-10 years or every single year,” said VinZant.

FEMA said the new system is more fair. Phase two of this program goes into effect on April 1, 2022.

Article Source: https://abc-7.com/news/state/2021/09/27/fema-flood-insurance-changes-go-into-effect-friday/

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