Thanks for joining us.
On to the point,
I'm Becca Habiger in for Alex,
who's out representing ABC 10 at
the Sacramento Black Chamber of
Commerce Celebration of Excellence,
Gala MC by our own Chris Thomas,
which we'll get to later.
But first, we want to bring you our
final part of our Megaflood series.
Climate change has doubled the risk
of devastating floods in California.
Our meteorologists have spent
months asking our state lead
researchers what is a mega flood,
what damage could it do?
And are we ready as a state tonight,
Carly Gomez.
Closes our series with a look
at the importance of flood
insurance and what you need to
know to stay protected if the
worst case scenario comes true.
All of our tools were tough.
March on the water.
It looks like a bomb went off there.
Imagine the biggest storm you've ever been
through. He had a chainsaw
his way out his front door.
Cold hard rain has local creeks
and rivers running high.
All this came underneath the doors.
What if the rain didn't stop?
A levee breaks now your
neighborhood is taking on water.
In Sacramento region alone,
there's over 514,000 people that
are protected by these levies.
Studies suggest that Sacramento
is actually one of the top ten
in the nation's most at risk
for flooding due to rivers.
The most intense atmospheric
river storms are likely to become
significantly more intense.
And certainly this spillway
incident was one of those instances
where did not have time.
Are we prepared?
This is megaflood.
One of the things that we say at FEMA is
that all droughts are followed by floods.
Frank Manzel with FEMA public affairs
says they prepare for catastrophic
events like floods and try to get the
word out to residents on how to prepare.
Even with warnings, residents find
themselves left wondering what to do.
I don't know how many disasters
I've been at were people had no
idea what insurance policies they had,
bank account numbers, all that
stuff that you take for granted.
Is having you will likely have
it destroyed in a disaster.
So this begs the question,
are we really prepared?
Manzel works closely with experts with
the National Flood Insurance program.
He says many people think they're
covered with home insurance
and find out the hard way.
Fighting can happen anywhere it rains.
As they said, you can get St flooding.
Levees are constantly under pressure.
There's always water flowing past them,
eroding at the base of the levy,
and levies do over talk.
And it's a nice system,
but it's not foolproof and it
doesn't offer 100% protection.
According to FEMA,
over 90% of flood insurance
policies are covered by the NF IP.
You can buy flood insurance
through your current insurance
company who participates in a
write your own policy.
The NF IP allows your insurance
company to write and service
government flood insurance
using their own brand name.
Premiums
are assessed through flood maps.
We're a community gets its flood maps.
It also comes with a set of building
standards for that community.
And we assume that you as a homeowner
building after the flood maps Rd,
are going to build to that new standard.
You paid what we're called actuarial rates.
Those are rates that really reflect the risk.
The National Flood Insurance Program
has paid $72 billion in claims
to about 2,000,000 policyholders.
That's according to a statement
by David Morstad, senior
executive of the National Flood Insurance.
Program to the Committee on Banking, Housing
and Urban Affairs last year.
The largest, KB PAT,
is that FEMA will not duplicate benefits.
So if if my home is damaged
significantly from a flood, for instance,
people will pay you for everything
your flood insurance doesn't cover,
up to a total of about 35 to $40,000.
Flood insurance is beginning to gain
ground in sales as more tools and forecast
for flood zones becomes available.
Often private insurance can cost a bit more,
but can cover higher value homes.
Private flood insurance?
They're usually higher,
but not necessarily so.
You can shop around and compare prices.
You can also use private
insurance to augment your
national flood insurance program,
so if you thought your structure
was worth more than $250,000,
you may want to look at a private.
Insurers to cover the balance.
The biggest misconception about
flood insurance in California
is that you don't need it.
Sacramento is at the
confluence of two rivers.
Some studies suggest that Sacramento
is actually one of the top ten
in the nation most at risk for
flooding due to rivers. Flood
maps around Sacramento Metro area shows
the regions near rivers, lakes, dams,
levees and canals are definitely at risk.
Take Natomas pocket and sell Sacramento
surrounded by major water sources.
But it doesn't mean outlying areas are safe.
40% of our flood claims that we pay are for
structures that are not in a flood zone.
John Kane with the nonprofit river
partners continues to advocate
for public education when it
comes to our water channels. Make
sure you get flood insurance even
if you're protected by a levee,
because that levee could fail.
And having a community,
not just a few homeowners but the
whole community of people to have
flood insurance really helps the
community build back from from floods.
Those emergency to go bags
constantly mentioned in earthquake
scenarios can also be used in floods
kit that's fully inclusive of
everything that they may need,
including personal medications,
pet supplies, things like that that.
And accommodate everybody within their
family. Levees and drainage canals like
this one can be inundated with water.
In a mega flood.
You and your family will need to be
ready to evacuate in a moment's notice.
There's also some extra things
you may need for that emergency
kit that includes non perishable
food for at least three days,
including water.
You're also going to need maybe
a first aid kit for yourself,
but also some important factors that
add on to this list aside from those
emergency kits you already have for
earthquake help is possibly a whistle.
In case of an emergency,
you also want to waterproof some of those
documents and plastic bags or containers.
Another extra step making sure
you have extra clothing from areas
that are inundated with water.
You want to have those extra blankets,
clothing, anything protective to wear.
And another one on that list includes
some cash on hand in case of emergency
situations with power outages.
Right the Mega Storm,
as much as it would apply to
an earthquake or a wildfire, have
an escape plan and a place to meet.
Now it's a race against time for our
infrastructure to meet the rate of
climate change due to our warming planet.
Being prepared is our best chance
at protecting our communities.
And our Carly Gomez joins us now.
Carly, thank you for this story.
You know, flood insurance,
that's going to come at a price.
How much are we talking?
Yeah, it really varies.
So in California,
the National Flood Insurance program averages
Californian homes at around $850 a month.
But that's the average.
That's about $70.00 a month.
But when you think of some of the
higher in places around the Bay Area,
even San Rafael is looking
at about $1800 a month.
But areas like Elk Grove,
it's about $450 a month.
So it varies depending on your flood map.
Flood zone areas.
So that's really the biggest issue here is
where do you lie in according to levies,
lakes and rivers and that's per month
or per year? That is for the year.
OK. So if it's averaging 850,
that's 70 bucks a month.
OK, OK, great.
Thanks.
Now I know having covered stories in in the,
you know,
the foothills,
a lot of folks find that their fire
insurance gets dropped suddenly
and that can get very expensive.
Is there something similar
with flood insurance,
right,
so the flood insurance program has been
around much longer than fire situations.
We've been in think about hurricanes
that happen things on the East
Coast where they were dealing
with nonstop hurricane season.
That flood insurance program
has been established.
Fire, not so much,
but the flood insurance program
does have its cap and its limits.
So you can get only about $250,000 for
your building property and only about
$100,000 for your personal property.
So you're looking at 350,000.
Think about how much the homes here are cost,
like 250,000 is not going to
even scratch the surface on
a lot of California homes.
Right.
And so private insurance is an option
and that's something that people
could consider kind of picking up
the remainder of the tab. Sure.
Final quick question here for you.
What questions should homeowners be
asking when looking at flood insurance?
Yeah, you know,
this is an ever evolving situation.
Technology has been coming out kind
of improving the flood map zone,
so kind of getting more into
the micro areas that could see
it more or worse or better.
So it's really pinpointing,
am I in that flood zone area,
how much of risk am I taking?
Being in this area and can I
cover the amount that would be
needed a lot for homeowners to
think about important information?
Thank you so much Carly.
And you can catch all four
parts of our Mega flood series
on abc10.com/megaflood.