No, we never have.

Sue

I do not. But I am glad I did the one time I needed it.

Here, the bank requires you to have flood insurance on your home if you have even one corner of the back of the property in a floodzone, as indicated by FEMA. If you don't provide proof, they tack that onto your payments. And it's twice as expensive as buying it outright. I wasn't even in a high risk area in any way, but was flooded. Historians are calling it the "1000 year flood". We'll not see it again like this in my lifetime. It'd be like worrying about a destructive earthquake here. Sure, it happened in 1812, but not since then. Literally one corner. That was my house, the rectangle directly under Park.

We are not at risk and do not purchase it either, of course.

Earthquakes, yes we are at risk. We do not have insurance for earthquake damage. Many people in our area do not have it.

We do, and luckily we had it twice when needed.

In Minnesota the mortgage company declared that their expert had determined that our property was in a 100 year flood plain and stated that we were required to provide proof of flood insurance at the time of closing. Which was complete nonsense. The property was across the street from a sizable lake, but we were about 50 feet higher than the lake whereas on the opposite side of the lake there are many square miles that are lower elevation than our house.

It turns out that their "expert" was an idiot who was incapable of reading a map, and thought that our house was on the opposite side of the lake.

I can relate to what Bob wrote. We live in a flood plain but have the highest land on the bayou. If you were to lay on your stomach and site across the bayou, you are looking in tree tops. Anyway, part of the land dips down to the bayou and is only a foot or two above the usual water line. Whoever drew up the map, has that at the highest point. Where we are 50' above the water...they have that drawn as the lowest point. Our house is in between the two points. It is what is called a "low country" house, which means it is built up about 4' above ground level. We do not have flood insurance.....no mortgage....and no worry about flooding. The bayou is 100' wide behind the house and the water gets out very fast. In the last hurricane we only had a little water come up at the lowest point and immediately fell when the hurricane was over.

We do. The weather in the past years does some weird thing in our area. It's better to be safe than sorry. Besides, being in a non-flood area, the premium is not bad.

Yes. We live in Central FL and not in a flood zone. We weren't in one either when we lived in SW LA and a tropical storm hovered for 20 days and the lake and many streets flooded. We weren't in a flood zone in NE FL when a tropical storm had water on our patio. We weren't in a flood zone in TX when hurricane Ike dumped SOOO much rain, the drainage system in our yard got overwhelmed and the pooling water came within a foot of our house. Flood insurance is cheap.

Yes we have it as required by fema. We are in the 100 year flood plain. This house has had water in it in a past hurricane. It was stripped to the studs and completely rebuilt when we bought it. I hope it never floods again. There's a major Creek that runs behind the house.

We live on the water but are high enough that we don't get flooded even in Hur. Isabelle(which was our last major storm). Some of the places at the end of the street had water up to the windows but the water never came high enough to reach the land here.

We're over 100 miles from the coast and Hurricane Isabelle was still frighteningly strong when it went right over us, there was even a brief calm as the remnant of the eye went over us. At times like that I really don't envy those who live right on the coast. I think we got over 12 inches of rain and we lost an enormous red oak tree.

We had it for the past 12 years and then the flood maps were redrawn this past year and now we no longer need it. It was very expensive but our mortgage company required it. I am so happy we don't need it now.

We live on the coast....almost exactly in the middle between Mexico and Florida.....and get a direct hit on the average of every 20 years. We don't flood like, say, Houston, where the streets flood and water backs up. The most dangerous thing about hurricanes, in my opinion, is getting out on the road with all the people who really don't need to evacuate, but are afraid not to. I remember when, I think it was 125, people died running from Hurricane Rita, which didn't even hit here....died trapped in traffic in intense heat. Also all kinds of animals...horses, dogs, parrots. We never leave.

No. We live on top of a hill on solid granite. Noah would have to be rowing by before we'd need flood insurance.

Bob I'm gonna guess there are more people who have flood damage through the years from rivers and streams than from being in a coastal locale.

I'm not suggesting that hurricane damage isn't severe, just more people in river floodplains

I'm sure flooding is more common along rivers and streams than in coastal areas. I was referring to the relentless howling winds that were blowing steadily at about 60 mph with gusts up to 80 mph that went on for about 4 hours. Our power was out after the first hour and a 3 foot diameter oak fell while we were watching, nearly filling the entire back yard, and the wind just kept on.

The worst flooding ever around here was long before I moved here back in 1969, when the remnants of Hurricane Camille dropped prodigious amounts of rain and the flooding washed entire houses and families away. Some experts estimate that about 42 inches fell in 12 hours in the county south of us.

Over 25% of flooded homes in the US are not in the high risk flood zone. Flood insurance not only covers river flooding and hurricanes, it covers above ground water inundation of two acres or more or covering two properties. A summer cloudburst or even a large water main break can get covered. Homeowners plans do not cover any of these items.

Just because you are on higher ground does not mean you will not flood. Check out Duluth MN. Most of the city is on a bluff overlooking Lake Superior. They got heavy rainfall one summer and the houses on the bluff and in the streets going down the bluff were flooded out. Rain just has to fall upland from you and collect around you.

I live in Fargo ND. My old home is on one of the highest points in the city. 95% of the city would have river flooding before my house would get wet. However, in 2000, there was a 6" rain in 1/2 hour. Run off from the streets crossed the yards and went straight down your window wells. Most people in my neighbor got wet (and we LIVE in our basements here-most are totally finished.) Who would have figured?

A co-worker's house got flooded by a water main break. 6 houses on her side of the block got 6" of mud and water in their basements. Cost her over $25K to clean up the mess. She was glad she only paid $450.00 a year in premiums!