Lack of flood insurance, another problem that Hurricane Ian uncovered

() — When Amanda Trumpet woke up to her dog barking in the morning, she assumed he was just freaking out about Hurricane Ian. But then he got out of bed and found himself in an ankle-deep flood.

By the time the storm passed, three feet of dark, murky water had entered Trumpet’s home in the Winter Springs neighborhood of Orlando. “It got everywhere, in every room,” she said. “You have to redo all the floors, all the walls: everything is ruined.”

Despite the devastation, when Trumpet called his insurance company, he had an unpleasant realization: “They’re not going to cover anything.”

Homeowners insurance policies don’t typically cover flood damage, and most people who lived along Ian’s path through Florida didn’t have a separate flood insurance policy. Inland areas that experienced historic rainfall and catastrophic flooding were especially unprepared, according to a analysis of FEMA flood insurance data.

About a quarter of single-family homes in coastal Lee County, where Ian made landfall, are covered by federal flood insurance. Coverage rates are highest in some of the hardest-hit areas of the county, such as Sanibel Island, where about half the homes are covered.

But further inland, only about 4% of Seminole County single-family homes, 3% of Orange County homes, and 2% of Polk County homes are covered by flood insurance. All of those counties have reported significant flooding during Ian.

“The biggest concern behind the storm and all the losses is the lack of flood insurance, especially in central Florida,” said Mark Friedlander, director of corporate communications for the Insurance Information Institute, an industry group.

Although people without flood insurance will continue to be eligible for FEMA assistance payments and potentially other aid approved by Congress, many homeowners may only receive a small fraction of the cost of the damage they have suffered. .

“People are going to be really disappointed when they see the funding they’re getting and how short it is to help them get back on their feet,” Friedlander said.

Hurricane Ian has wreaked havoc across central Florida, inundating communities with record levels of rainfall from Fort Myers on the southwest coast, through the Orlando region, and into the far northeast of the state. Floodwaters turned cities into rivers and forced some residents to kayak through their homes to assess the damage.

In the interior of central Florida, which Registration the wettest September in its history, authorities reported considerable damage and high flood levels that persisted even days after the storm passed.

In Seminole County, northeast of Orlando, more than 5,200 residential buildings were damaged in the storm, mostly due to flooding, according to a county spokesperson. “We’ve never had anything of this nature,” said Jay Zembower, a Seminole County commissioner, calling the flooding “an event of more than 500 years of rapid rainfall in a short space of time.”

Polk County has accounted for about 3,000 storm-damaged buildings, Orange County about 1,200, and Volusia County, on the state’s eastern coast, has at least 4,000 damage, county officials said. All counties said their numbers are preliminary, in some cases because damage assessment teams have not yet been able to reach some flooded areas.

A car is seen on a flooded road after being hit by winds and rain from Hurricane Ian on September 29, 2022 in Sanford, Florida, located in Seminole County.

Previous hurricanes like Irma in 2017 have also caused significant damage in the region. But much of that damage in Seminole County, at least, was from wind and debris, which are covered by typical homeowners insurance policies, and not from flooding, the county spokesman said.

Now, the lack of flood insurance is a major hurdle for families trying to get back on their feet. Homeowners are generally required to purchase flood insurance if they live in a FEMA designated flood zone and have a federally backed mortgage. But flooding from Ian extended beyond that floodplain into central Florida and elsewhere, according to analysis by satellite mapping company ICEYE.

That means that many of those affected by the floods, especially far from the coasts, probably did not have flood insurance and cannot count on any insurance payments to help them.

In Winter Springs, for example, at least 2,000 buildings have been affected, according to county officials, but there are only about 525 active federal flood insurance policies in the city, according to FEMA records.

Trumpet, whose neighborhood is littered with flooded debris and furniture piled up on front lawns, said the lack of flood insurance on the home she and her fiancé bought a few years ago scuttled her carefully planned finances.

“Obviously, it’s a big setback,” he said. “We both have student debt,” and with the federal forgiveness program, he added, “I was on track to be debt-free in a year.”

“Now we have to focus on rebuilding the house to have somewhere to live,” said Trumpet.

People paddle a canoe past a submerged car after Hurricane Ian passed through Orlando on September 29, 2022.

Without flood insurance, people like Trumpet will be forced to apply for other government aid, such as FEMA’s individual assistance programs. those payments have a cap of about $38,000, and after past hurricanes, many people ended up receiving between $5,000 and $10,000, said Roy Wright, former director general of FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program.

“US catastrophe programs assume that homeowners are insured,” Wright said. Individual assistance programs “are not even there as a safety net, but simply as a helping hand for those left behind,” she explained.

Congress could also pass additional catastrophe aid, as lawmakers did after previous major hurricanes like Katrina, Sandy and Harvey. But it could be months or more before funding is approved and received by affected communities, Wright said.

Experts like Wright said Ian’s widespread damage should be a wake-up call for many more US homeowners to purchase flood insurance, even if they don’t own waterfront property. This is especially true when climate change causes stronger and more frequent storms.

Although some people have purchased private flood insurance that isn’t listed in FEMA data, the federal flood insurance program still accounts for about 80% of policies in Florida, Friedlander said.

Floodwaters that swept through a Seminole County neighborhood left the lower story of a Geneva house under water.

The investigation also revealed that FEMA flood maps underestimate danger in some areas as climate change progresses, leaving some homeowners unaware of their level of risk.

Meanwhile, even some of the families affected by Ian who have flood insurance are finding that it isn’t enough to cover all their damages. Federal flood insurance limits compensation for damage to single-family homes at $250,000 and the contents of the house at $100,000.

Pamela Sanders said her family’s home in Geneva, Fla., has had flood insurance for years, but she expects the damage to the home during Ian’s hit will exceed her maximum coverage. The flood waters that swept through her neighborhood left the bottom floor of her house under water, and mold is already growing on the second floor.

“It’s unbelievable,” Sanders said. “I’ve always had a job, I’ve paid my bills, I’ve paid off my house, I had everything set up for retirement… and now I’m 75 and homeless.”