Iowa Flood Is Making Me Nervous
By Pinyo • Jun 18th, 2008 • Category: InsuranceI think the frequency and magnitude of natural disasters in the past few years is a sign from nature that we have to stop abusing the environment. It’s sad to see how millions upon millions of people are affected by disasters like the Myanmar Cyclone Nargis, China earthquake, and most recently the Iowa Flood.
If you want to help the flood victims, Kate Harding has an informative article: Iowa Flood: How You Can Help. Also, you could check out the American Red Cross web site.
My thoughts and prayer go out to all the families and the community involved.
The Iowa Flood is making me look closer to home. My house sits at the bottom of a hill and my backyard is about 5 feet below the street level. Last year, water managed to get inside the house over the 8″ threshold on three occasions. I have since improved the drainage system in the back, but the fear of another flood is always fresh in my mind. We are only talking about 4″-5″ flood here, so I cannot imagine what people in Iowa are going through.
This is making me think about flood insurance, and I’ll be calling my agent to find out how much it will add to the existing home insurance. I think it’s inevitable that another big storm will hit NYC and put my ground floor under water again — and it could be worse than before. Other than that, NASA did some research a few years back and indicated that global warming could put most of NYC under water (see the image above) — may be I should move away from NYC sooner, rather than later.
If you want to find out if your house is in a flood zone, you could try the FEMA Flood Map — but it’s running a little slow right now.
Is your house in a flood zone and do you have flood insurance?
Photo from New York Times (top), NASA (bottom)
We’re fortunately on the top floor of our building and near the top of a hill. It’s about 1/2 mile down the hill and a steep slope. It wouldn’t be a picnic if it flooded, but it would take a really long time for the water to even get near our building.
That said, I’m not sure about damage coverage if the roof leaked during a torrential rainstorm. I should check that.
Despite having lived through a major earthquake, we had resisted earthquake insurance because it essentially doubles the premium. We took the rather fatalistic view of “oh well,” “que sera, sera” “just declare bankruptcy and walk away”. When we recently learned how much our home value has increased, and that we’re virtually guaranteed the Big One in the next 30 years, we bit the bullet. It is expensive, but since our house is now worth 10 times our mortgage it’s a No Brainer. One thing we haven’t checked on is if a disaster ruptured a small reservoir up the hill from us. They’ve plotted the flow pattern should a quake break it, but I *think* there would be little water left by the time it got to us. Should check, though, and see if covered.
Too bad the infrastructure (levees, dams, etc) is so weak in this country. Unfortunately can’t sue the government for being negligent.
IMO it’s too late now to “make changes”…..we’ve made our bed. Should have been making changes 20 years ago.
I’m not so sure ‘mother nature’ is the cause of the increase in natural disasters. What about the ‘God’ of the bible, who has destroyed many people for their sin - as documented in the bible. I find it ironic the gay marriage is now legal in California and many other parts of the world, and has increased with the last 50 years of increasing natural disasters. God has not exactly been friendly to that movement in the past, just read what he did to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. In fact, the bible predicts that at the end of this age, the world will be like it was at that time. Maybe we are getting closer to that day.
As for your house. We lived in a flooded area several years ago and when we moved, we found a house on a hill or at least on the side of a hill. Sometime being on top of a hill is not so good either (tornados). But, being on the bottom of a hill is definitely a bad place to be.
@Curt, gay marriage? Really? You can’t think of a million “worse” things in the world…genocides, etc. Wow. Yep, I’m sure that the gays are destroying the world and our society. Not greed, not wars, not hatred….gays.
(sorry, Pinyo, but the comment was just so ridiculous)
@Mrs. Micah: Sentiments like Curt’s remind me of that weird church somewhere in Kansas - something about the most hated family in America. At least the rest of you restore my faith in the common sense of Americans
.
Back on topic. Flooding is the single most likely catastrophe that you might face in the UK (must be the gays, sorry couldn’t resist
). Fortunately for me, I live on elevated ground, so it would take a reasonable amount for me to get flooded. Also, because the geography is more compact, it’s not hard to get to somewhere a bit drier. But, I’m still going to check my flood insurance.
You guys are so easy to confuse. It’s not the gays that are causing natural disasters. The gays are not controlling the universe. What about God? The God that everyone thinks in dead. Perhaps God is still alive and in full control of the universe that he created. The least you can do is agree and say, ‘yes it is his fault’ - God has abandoned us.
@Curt, what I was saying is that I doubt God would be causing natural disasters because of gay people. I think if God wants to punish the US or the world, there are far worse things going on in our country and world than gay marriage.
I’m not easy to confuse, I just find it shocking that you think God would focus on gay people rather than huge rates of murder, rape, child rape, etc. If you’re right about this being God’s doing, I’m pretty sure we could chalk it up to those instead. Even if they’re against the US law, they’re certainly being much-practiced by the US and all around the world.
Oh wow. I think maybe I should start watching the news or somehow pay attention to what is going on in the non-technical world. I had no idea this flooding was going on. ::hides his head in shame ::
Wow, a post on the financial impact of a natural disaster turning into a religious debate. You’ve got to love the internet!
The key to recovering from a disaster is planning ahead. Do you have a significant savings? Do you have adequate insurance? Are you debt free? These things will help you weather the storm (no pun intended).
I live in Houston and looked to history to help make my insurance decision. It is $350/year well spent considering the flood problems we have. That doesn’t help the people who were told “we don’t flood here.” It doesn’t help those that were in debt and have no savings.
There are organizations that help in times like this. The red cross is one that comes to mind. Also a lot of churches are extremely active in the recovery efforts.
And now to stir the pot…I’m not convinced that natural disaster frequency or severity is on the rise. If you look to history these things ebb and flow. Also you have to look at the actual facts not just the statistics that the media uses in their stories.
I used to live here, and thankfully not anymore. But my friends, who live 5 minutes away from my old house, received a ton of damage. They were devastated, and going broke now recovering these damages. My family and I offered them a place to stay (two towns over) and to come for dinners all week but they said they actually picked up food donated by AgriProcessors and are staying with their parents.
It’s nice to have one business giving back to the community. Maybe the meats, chickens, and turkeys AgriProcessors are giving out can spark more fun barbecues, and end some grieving.
I am not convinced there are more natural disasters, either. Looking back over the records for many years, there are plenty of disasters in the past. And in many cases, many of those disasters resulted in a much greater loss of life and property. I think the key now is that everything is instantaneous and shown in extremely graphic video in real time. A good comaprison is wars - they were every bit as terrible before Vietnam as they were in that war and every war since. But the Vietnam war was the first time war was brought into our living rooms. It made war a much more real and personal issue. Natural disasters now are much the same. They are in our living rooms every night. In fact, what about some of the atrocities which have gone largely ignored? Things like the genocide in Rwanda and the current issues in Darfur? Without on the ground video coming back to us through real time reporting, the issue is largely off the radar of the average person. Same goes for natural disasters. They happened with regularity in the past, but no one knew about the disasters except those people affected by them. I guess I have a problem with the first sentence of the blog.
That being said, risk management is often an overlooked step in financial planning. I cannot even look up the flood map for my home - FEMA says it doesn’t exist! I did have flood insurance at one point (it was required - I was in a flood plain and the cost was $600+ a year, 15 years ago, on a house that was worth about $70,000!) but you have to remember fllod insurance does not cover septic or sewer backups, nor do I think it covers storm water coming up through drains. Flood waters must typically come through the windows or doors to be covered. I think it is worthwhile to have sewer back up protection added to your homeowner’s insurance. The cost is much less and the chances of it happening are, in some cases, much higher than the chance of a flood.