Who Pays for Flooding?
The Midwest typically is not a great concern in national news, however, in recent weeks our weather has made daily headlines. With repeated rains totaling anywhere from 7-12 inches at a crack, many Midwestern states are dealing with what’s now known as the Flood of 2008.
Here in Wisconsin, Lake Delton has become our poster child of flooding. On June 9, torrential rains caused the 245-acre, man-made lake to tear away the county highway that served as its dike and literally drain itself within hours into the already flooded Wisconsin River. Most dramatic is the coverage of lakefront homes that were ripped from the shoreline and washed away into the rushing waters.
You sure have to feel for these homeowners.
But wait. When I watched the TV news coverage, my feelings became mixed. I saw Lake Delton homeowners bemoan the loss of their…yep, you got it…vacation homes. Don’t get me wrong. I realize multiple-homeowners work as hard for their real estate as the rest of us. But when thousands of Midwesterners elsewhere are struggling to save the only home they own from water, sewage and who-knows-what, it’s hard to feel pain for those crying for their vacation homes.
My feelings were furthered mixed when I read of Lake Delton’s insurance woes. It seems the community was not enrolled in the federal flood insurance program. Nor were homeowners covered in their private homeowner policies. Here’s where I start to ask questions: At what point must each of us, as individual citizens, assume responsibility for our own rights and privileges? And to what extent are we, as a society, responsible for the rights and privileges of individuals?
One of the homes was valued at $1 million. As the Tomah Journal put it, “Does the government owe them another $1 million lakefront home? A less expensive home with no lake frontage? Anything?”
Another couple spent their life’s savings to build a dream home along side the lake, all the while knowing they were uninsured. Is this wise? Are taxpayers responsible for their love of water, even to the point of foregoing common sense?
A phone call to my insurance agency answered some of these questions. My agent explained that most private insurance companies do not offer coverage against flooding. Rather, homeowners purchase insurance from the federal government’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which they obtain through their private insurer.
But there’s a catch.
Homeowners cannot receive coverage if their community is not enrolled in the NFIP program. Reasons for not enrolling are usually because the area is determined to be a low risk for flooding. In the case of Lake Delton, a lakeside village located between Dell Creek and the large Wisconsin River, its officials disputed a federal updated floodplain map and forfeited their eligibility in the program.
This happened seven years ago.
So, let’s think about it. Here’s a community, surrounded by water, whose elected officials chose not to comply with its only source of flood insurance. For seven years. Would it not be the responsibility of homeowners to question these decisions? To oust those oafs from office and elect officials who act more in their behalf? To get involved?
These are difficult questions, to be sure. What do you think?
As for me, I’ll stay living on my hill and enjoy the water from afar.
July 6th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Sunday I was looking for sites about Home Contents Insurance and specifically about homeowners insurance policies and I found your site.