FEMA inspected flood damage on Thursday and Friday to determine if the Tampa Bay area will qualify for Federal Flood Damage Assistance. It appears the magic number is that damage must total $26 million statewide.  In the meantime, home and business owners can’t simply wait and hope for assistance and need to both document their losses and do the best they can to mitigate any further damage. If assistance does come, it’s never too early to educate yourself about FEMA’s Assistance program. Here are some valuable links to help you recover and understand FEMA’s process.

Flood Recovery

FEMA Individual Assistance

Check FEMA Disaster Assistance Qualification

Since October of 2013 our office has been cranking out claim packages for all of our clients so they fully comply with the terms and conditions of their flood policies.  One of those tasks is the filing of the Proof of Loss, which to the layman can be as complex as building a house with no construction experience.  

For a third time, FEMA has extended the deadline for filing Superstorm Sandy NFIP flood policy claims, 6 months to October 29, 2014. This is allowing policyholders who have supplemental claims or who have had repairs delayed due to code issues or other situations to gather the proper documentation.

The House finally came to its senses last week and amended the 2012 Biggert-Waters act by scaling back flood insurance rate increases. This is not only good news for longtime homeowners in coastal areas but also will help revive the real estate market which made some homes too expensive due to substantial flood rate increases. Amongst the positive changes are that new homeowners will not have to immediately pay full rates and those long time residents holding existing policies will see more gradual increases.

An editorial written in the Washington Post titled “Reforms should tackle flood and moral hazard” and reprinted in the St. Petersburg Times (2/4/2014) attempts to make a case that the U.S. House of Representatives should not follow their colleagues in the U.S. Senate and repeal the dastardly Biggert-Waters 2012 “Flood Reform” act. No need to go into a lengthy accounting on what’s in this piece of legislation and what it’s doing to still recovering homeowners. Examples of their pending financial ruin are constantly in the press and ubiquitous across the Internet.