Time To Consider Flood Insurance Amid Weather Warm-Up
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- With warmer, sunny days comes melting snow and the reminder that high water could be a problem.
Flood forecasters say there's an extremely high chance of major to record flooding in the Twin cities and northern Minnesota.
Meteorologist Mike Augustyniak warns about how our wettest year in 2019 may affect us this year.
"If we end up having a cool march and April and not much precipitation we may still escape relatively unscathed, but at this point your guard absolutely needs to be up," Augustyniak said.
According to insurance agent at the Insurance Federation of Minnesota Mark Kulda, if you don't have flood insurance your home owner's insurance does not cover flooding.
He also says that flood insurance prices can range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars a year.
"The good news about the flood insurance program is it's all standardized rates and it's all based entirely on what zone you're in and how much coverage you want," Kulda said.
If you're considering insurance, Kulda recommends to start off by visiting floodsmart.gov.
This is where you can type your address into the website and it will show a map of the flood plane, so you can figure out what zone you're in.
Kulda says that all flood insurance is sold through FEMA, the national flood insurance program, and you don't need to live in a flood plane to buy it.
If you are planning to purchase, there's a 30-day waiting period between when you buy a policy and when it kicks in.
So the time to decide is now.
