Have you seen the flooding in Nashville? Should people homeowner's insurance pick up some of this tab?

Nope, it’s pretty well established that if you don’t buy flood insurance, flood damage isn’t covered.

My house (on a hill) has flood insurance. Why someone wouldn’t have flood insurance is beyond me.

I have a close friend who lives outside of Nashville. He called me last night with devastating descriptions of what’s going on out there. He said his insurance will cover it. He’s one of the lucky ones.

I don’t think so. One can buy separate flood insurance.

As for why flood damage is not covered normally. It is to discourage people from building in flood zones.

If you even think that your house may become a victim of a flood, then take out the Federal Government Homeowners Flood Insurance. its not that expensive and its good to know you have this policy in your backpocket, if the unforseen occurs. so many people in my city did not have flood insurance and many of their house are completely underwater. before this big event, i attempted to explanin to the people, in my coverage zone, that they needed flood insurance, because their homes were almost at the level of the river, but many streets over. they figured they were safe, but now their home is underwater and probably off its foundation. we really have a serious problem with this flood in Nasville and the worst is yet to come. when water finally resedes, then the real damages are going to hit home with many homeowners. right now, we are under a no shower condition, to conserve water. i wonder how long i can survive without a shower and a stinky body? well, i guess i can go to a Kentucky Truck Stop and take a shower. its not that far away.

We had a storm sewer back up into our basement last summer. If we had not had flood insurance none of the damage would have been covered. Flood stuff is definitely separate from regular homeowners insurance

Nashville disaster

No. If you don’t buy insurance, you don’t get the benefits, sorry.

In Canada, historically flood insurance was not covered under a general home insurance policy. If you had commercial insurance it was, if you bought a flood rider. There were some insurance companies that offered flood insurance to homeowners but they were the exception and not the rule. Like earthquake insurance, you had to add it to your policy as a rider.

I don’t believe that insurance companies left out flood insurance to deter people from building in certain areas as @marinelife stated. The losses for a flood would be massive and insurance companies don’t want to be an the hook for it. Plus flooding rivers happens fairly regularly, unlike earthquakes. It all comes down to the bottom line.

I live in Nashville and attend Vanderbilt. We have set up a website where people can get help here.

Many people who do not have flood insurance still get help from the federal emergency management agency though.

Do remember though that the rainfall we’ve had has been literally the most we’ve had since records began. (over 500 years) People who had no idea it was even possible to get wet have had their whole houses flooded. Our hospital was shut down.

Requiring insurance to cover things it isn’t designed to cover only means that insurers will have to raise their rates. This is partly why medical coverage is so expensive – individual states or the Feds make laws saying what has to be covered which means that insurers can’t be flexible regarding, for example, catastrophic coverage versus covering the little things or covering annual check-ups etc. Certainly there should be some regulation of insurers but more of the clear-language and keep-your-promises variety.

I remember when the government only stepped in for Disasters. Each successive administration declares more and more ‘disaster areas’ and hands out more money. This is not to say that any given individual doesn’t deserve some kind of help but rather to point out that ever lesser problems are worthy of government payouts.

Makes me wonder where the Feds get all that money to hand out in the first place.

Homeowner’s insurance should pick up the things that the companies said that it will cover. That’s how insurance works.

understood, as mentioned in my question, that homeowner’s insurance does not cover flood. Also, these people DID NOT live in a flood zone…not anywhere close to one. This was, as some have said, a 200 years flood. Having worked for a major insurance company for 25 years, my company made a special acception, as noted in my question, they did in Houston, Tx. many years ago, when they got 15 inches of rain in less than 12 hours.

Personally, would like to see the insurance companies cover carpet only and painting the baseboard. This would help those people some…

Also, there are homes, that will almost be a total loss, WITH NO COVERAGE….that is why i asked the question!

Over those 25 years, saw my company change the rules on hurricane Andrew, Katrina, and other catastropic events. Maybe, they will do the same on this one!

There are rules and there can be acceptions to the rules. People who run huge insurance companies do have a heart also. Was fortunately enough to work for a really great company that changed the rules a few times over the years.

@Nullo ding! Sort of like health insurance…

@BoBo1946 I don’t understand why an insurance company would do that? I wouldn’t expect my insurance company to do something not covered in my contract.

@grumpyfish well, my company did…you would not believe some of the stuff that companies do in an area hit by storms. Have seen companies pay for people’s roofs and never look at them.

I worked this storm in Houston, Tx. and the damage was really severe…my company told us to be very liberal in trying to help the people some. In my 25 years, only saw my company do it a few times.

You are entitled to your life and to such services as protection by the police and fire departments, which are included in the social contract between Man and State.

@BoBo1946 Weird! Here where I live, we had some pretty catastrophic snow, lots of water damage and torn off gutters on many houses. The insurance companies declared it a “catastrophic loss” (meaning, from my perspective, that my homeowner’s rates won’t be going up because of it). I had a guy come out from the national office, look at stuff, and write me a check.

I didn’t get a penny for anything not covered (e.g., fixing the rot in my roof not covered, but replacing the gutter that pulled out because of ice was covered). However, they weren’t knocking on people’s doors to ask if they wanted a check for their gutters (which is what covering things not covered by your policy sounds like to my ears)

it is done very seldom…probably less today than when i was working! The market has changed so much since then. Noticed recently, my company withdrew from the state of Fl….totally. So, maybe those days of reaching out and helping a neighbor in trouble are over…

“Acts of God” are pretty much exempted from homeowners insurance, even with flood insurance if you use the word “flood” it will throw up a lot of blocks towards getting a settlement. The insurance lady told me to always call such things as Backups to indicate a system failure on the house so the insurance company doesn’t have an out to try and blame it on the city or God or anything else to get out of paying their claim. I don’t live in a flood prone area, but still keep a 10k ‘flood’ rider on my policy and it paid off last summer.

@majorrich as i said, most insurance companies offer an endorsement to cover back-up!

“Acts of God,” would be hurricanes, tornadoes, hail storms, etc…those are all covered.

In the case mentioned in my question, my company made a one-time special acception to cover flood, but limited to only carpet and painting the baseboards.

@majorrich Back up is just that: back up from inside your house. If you have sewer back up on your policy and the sewer did back up you would be covered. But if you had flood waters all around your house coming in from outside, just saying “backup” wouldn’t automatically allow the claim. You could sue your insurance agent for telling you that though, and that would probably pay out. And as @BoBo1946 said, many acts of god are covered on your basic insurance policy.

@tranquilsea when i first started working for my company, what you said was true, but, they changed it and required an endorsement. With the endorsement, they would cover certain things that was caused by flood..only in the basement. Been a few years…cannot remember the things that were covered.

@majorrich needs to write his insurance commissioner…see what they say!

@BoBo1946 Which company was this? I’m in Canada so our policies may be a bit different although what happens in the States often follows in Canada many years later.

The portion in the wordings on water damage are the most confusing for layman IMHO. I spent many hours explaining them, with a highlighter in hand, so that people weren’t surprised when a water damage claim was denied.

@tranquilsea State Farm…water damage wording is very confusing. You have a water claim…have 10 adjusters look at it, and i dare say, the estimates will vary a lot. At least that was my experience. Also, one adjuster will cover the loss and the next one will not…what is sudden and accidental..what is repeated leakage and seepage? Bet we had more meeting over that one subject than any other…

@BoBo1946 Water damage was definitely the worst kind of claim to have depending on the circumstances, as far as clarity goes.

@tranquilsea exactly…if they did not know it was going on…i helped them all i could…but, if it was neglect, would usually deny the claim unless there was circumstances out of their control. For ex., if they had been ill…loss of job etc. always thought an adjuster should look for everyway possible to help people. And, for that matter, that is what my company wanted me to do.

got to run..really enjoyed this conversation..see you later!