Flood Insurance in The Villages

[jrref]

After doing some searching this topic has been discussed but i would like to see what people think about flood insurance now that in recent years the weather has been more unpredictable.

In looking at the FEMA flood zone maps basically the ponds, perserves and lakes show as flood zones but not where the homes are.

I know we have a sophisticated storm water management system here in the Villages so the "risk" of flood is considered low.

That said, isn't flood insurance used to limit risk due to tidel surges and other bodies of water? If we ever got a storm that sat over the Villages for a week, for example and dumped 20 inches of rain on us and some homes flooded because the sewer system was overwhelmed wouldn't normal homeowners hurricane insurance cover this?

[villagetinker]

As I understand it (please confirm with your insurance agent), homeowners insurance does NOT cover flooding. You should have coverage for a water line break in the house, but external sources of water are not covered.

[retiredguy123]

No. Regular homeowners insurance will not cover any damage caused by rising water. It doesn't matter what caused the water to rise. However, you can buy an optional rider to your homeowners policy that will cover damage from a sewer backup. But, normally, a sewer backup would only be caused by a sewage problem, not area flooding. Area flooding would cause the sewer manholes to fill up with water and overflow into the street. It wouldn't flow into your house through the sewer pipe because the floor level of your house is higher than the street. But, that being said, I don't think flood insurance is worth buying.

[biker1]

There is plenty of information regarding what Flood insurance covers, the limits, and the cost. Basically, flood insurance covers rising water but there are caveats such as 2 out of 3 adjacent properties must experience rising water (or something like that). I suggest you do your own research. Irma, which was either a cat 1 or tropical storm when it passed west of The Villages, dropped over a foot of precip on us. I believe a few homes in the northern area experienced some minor flooding. The vast majority of The Villages was fine. I live on a retention pond and the water rose to the top of the weir and stopped as the weir did it’s job.

After doing some searching this topic has been discussed but i would like to see what people think about flood insurance now that in recent years the weather has been more unpredictable.

In looking at the FEMA flood zone maps basically the ponds, perserves and lakes show as flood zones but not where the homes are.

I know we have a sophisticated storm water management system here in the Villages so the "risk" of flood is considered low.

That said, isn't flood insurance used to limit risk due to tidel surges and other bodies of water? If we ever got a storm that sat over the Villages for a week, for example and dumped 20 inches of rain on us and some homes flooded because the sewer system was overwhelmed wouldn't normal homeowners hurricane insurance cover this?

[jrref]

No. Regular homeowners insurance will not cover any damage caused by rising water. It doesn't matter what caused the water to rise. However, you can buy an optional rider to your homeowners policy that will cover damage from a sewer backup. But, normally, a sewer backup would only be caused by a sewage problem, not area flooding. Area flooding would cause the sewer manholes to fill up with water and overflow into the street. It wouldn't flow into your house through the sewer pipe because the floor level of your house is higher than the street. But, that being said, I don't think flood insurance is worth buying.

Yes i have this sewer backup rider.

Thanks for the responses, makes sense. I agree with the sewer water management system we have here it probably doesn't make sense to get flood insurance unless you just want piece of mind. I understand from a village official the Villages can pump water around the retention ponds and elsewhere during storms and they have backup power in case we get a power failure so the risk is low. But if you are up north above 466 the system isn't as robust so you may want to get flood insurance.