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If this doesn’t happen, then there won’t be assistance. 1 – The president of the United States must declare the flooding event a state of emergency. However, a few things must align for you to get government assistance. We often hear that people believe that the government will help, which is true. Three-fourths of these properties were considered low to moderate risk. In Harris county, nearly 135,000 homes were damaged. 80 percent of these individuals had water in their homes or buildings and didn’t have flood insurance coverage. After our last few major storms (Hurricane Harvey), we saw flooding in these low-risk areas. I ask you to consider the facts: 20 percent of all flooding events across our nation come in areas that are considered low risk. Some real estate and insurance agents may even say you don’t need it. Sadly, many homeowners decide to forgo purchasing coverage because they believe they are safe from flooding. If your home or business is in a flood zone, that is considered a low flood-risk area. However, many of us only think about it when a big storm is looming, or we have heard on the news that there is flooding forecasted or happening too close to our home. We believe most homeowners think about Flood insurance in Tennessee at some point, maybe before buying a home or during the closing process. Do I need flood insurance in Tennessee? It is important to have flood insurance coverage in Tennessee because our beloved Cowboy State has seen a fair share of flooding, and more is likely coming. Yet, don’t be too surprised if the answer is NO. However, you should ask your homeowners agent if you can add an endorsement to your homeowner’s policy to cover flooding. In most cases, the only way to get flood coverage is by purchasing a stand-alone flood insurance policy. Some were told they could not get insurance if they wanted it (turns out this is false, but it is harder to get flood insurance on the top of a mountain, as it is government run).Get a quote Does my Tennessee homeowner insurance cover flooding? A typical Tennessee homeowners’ policy is written through Farmers, State Farm, Allstate, and Progressive, for instance, excludes flooding as something that will be covered under their homeowner’s policy. Many of the residents in many of the neighborhoods did not have flood insurance, as they DID NOT live in a flood plain. You can imagine the scene, but until you live through it, you just don’t know. It is unfortunate a picture cannot truly convey what goes on in a flood. This means all drywall below the flood line gets ripped up and thrown out. Inside, the residents are gutting out their walls to dry them out. The furniture is now worthless and needs to be thrown out. This is a picture of a duplex in River Plantation that was flooded. Finally a scene of a picture that was all too prevalent. What is interesting is the water rose another 10+ feet above this point by later this night. Here is one of my favorite pictures from the flood as I feel it conveys a story:Īnd here is another of a man watching his jeep being towed out of a flooded area: In the upper left corner are the entrances to a couple of neighborhoods that also had massive flooding. And that is just this section of the map. Large sections on both sides of the river are flooded, including hundreds of houses. In this second map, there is no way to get out of the are for a large number of residents. Now compare it to the following map, which is where the river was at crest. There is also a small creek almost mid way down the map going off to the east (right) and another creek that crosses near Temple Road and highway 100 (the one that heads south about mid way side to side). The blue line is the Harpeth river snaking around the area. This is a map of what the Bellevue area of Tennessee is like on a normal day: For those who have not seen Nashville, or do not really understand the extent of the flooding, the following 2 maps should give you an idea.
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