June 15, 2011 file photo, a farmhouse and buildings surrounded by flood waters from the nearby Missouri River in Hamburg, Iowa
Posted on 07/10/2011 12:01:25 PM PDT by Hunton Peck
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Insurance agents in states along the swollen Missouri River basin say federal officials are causing widespread confusion among property owners by pushing the sale of flood insurance policies that might not cover damage from the river flooding that began this month.
The insurance companies say that officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which administers the national flood insurance program, are still urging private agents to sell the insurance even though the policies contain deadlines that appear to exclude the Missouri River flood damage. The federal officials explain that some of the damage along the river might still be covered under the program's highly complicated rules, but how much won't be known until after the flooding is over.
"They won't give you a clear answer," said Larry Case, executive vice president of the Missouri Association of Insurance Agents. "It causes issues for agents because they get frustrated when they can't give policyholders a definitive answer."
The questions primarily affect property owners who waited until recently to decide on flood insurance because their property usually doesn't flood. The extensive flooding this year -- the worst since 1993 -- is threatening thousands of acres that normally remain dry. The federal government has been encouraging more property owners along the river to make longer-term commitments to insurance.
"We've got to communicate with people that you can't wait until the last minute to buy flood insurance," said Brad Kieserman, FEMA's chief counsel.
The number of landowners who bought policies that may or may not cover the Missouri flooding is not known.
***
The confusion about coverage mostly stems from a 30-day waiting period in flood insurance policies.
(Excerpt) Read more at centurylink.net ...
It called FRAUD
John Stossel talked about the government’s idiotic flood insurance on his show on the Fox Business Channel.
In this case (and in a roundabout way, many other cases), the entity causing the flooding (the FedGov) is also the one selling the insurance, making the rules about what/who is covered, when the coverage starts, and how much to pay in claims.
Conflict of interest... say it ain’t so...
My congressman has been pushing to stop the mandate that insurers use FEMA flood maps when they set rates. My house is in a floodplain that didn’t exist till FEMA decided it did.
http://walberg.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=79
FEMA needs to disappear.
June 15, 2011 file photo, a farmhouse and buildings surrounded by flood waters from the nearby Missouri River in Hamburg, Iowa
They have been for years. FEMA is a giant .gov insurance agency that is broke and constantly looking for ways to sustain itself.
They often force homeowners who aren't even in a flood zone to buy their insurance. Another tactic they use is to redraw flood maps to put thousands of previously "dry" homeowners into flood zones. It's just a matter of moving lines on a map. If you have a mortgage, you're forced to buy the insurance - like it or not.
I know this because it happened in my area.
It's a scam. The "premiums" are used to maintain FEMA's massive budget and to pay disaster welfare by rebuilding homes that should never have been built in these REAL flood areas.
As usual, those who do things properly are forced to pay for the f***-ups. FEMA facilitates it all and gets their cut.
That photo is tragic for the owner of that farm but that sure as hell doesn’t give FEMA the right to creatively edit floodplain maps to con and/or force me into paying for it.
Fortunately my house is paid off so I can’t be forced to buy flood insurance but I still take a hit due to the fact that my insurance company is required to put money aside for FEMA. That means a rate increase.
Whenever they need to pad the premiums they start redrawing maps. Funny how thousands of homes always wind up in these newly discovered flood zones.
They suck money out of homeowners by decree. It's just a matter of changing some lines on a map.
It’s an especially tragic photo in light of the farmers in the Central Valley of California who are paying millions to the water agencies for water that is never delivered to the most productive farmland in the world, all to beggar the farmers of their sunny farmland so George Miller and his cronies can buy it and set up solar panel farms.
I live just above a dam meaning that the floodplain is already flooded (we call it the lake) and can’t flood any more.
Back in May we had rain on all but about 3 days of the month and the lake level only rose about two inches.
It's only a matter of time till we have apocalyptic stories about the massive flooding in Central CA, and how it's caused by global warming.
Sacramento is in a world of hurt if the levees break or if the hundred year blood breaks through the dams upstream:
http://www.fromthecapitol.com/is-sacramento-at-risk-of-flooding-2037
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