Search

Flood Insurance Provides Coverage for Emergency Protective Measures

Patricia Skinner

The flood insurance policy of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) provides limited coverage for expenses you incur trying to protect insured property from flood damage. The policy language is quoted below. You should ask your insurance agent specific questions about actions for which you could expect to receive a claim payment and what documentation would be required.


Coverage C2 - Loss Avoidance Measures

a. Sandbags, Supplies, and Labor

  1. We will pay up to $1,000 for costs you incur to protect the insured building from a flood or imminent danger of flood, for the following:
    2. (a) Your reasonable expenses to buy:

    (i) Sandbags, including sand to fill them;
    (ii) Fill for temporary levees;
    (iii) Pumps; and
    (iv) Plastic sheeting and lumber used in connection with these items.
    (b) The value of work, at the Federal minimum wage, that you or a member of your household perform.
  2. This coverage for Sandbags, Supplies and Labor only applies if damage to insured property by or from flood is imminent and the threat of flood damage is apparent enough to lead a person of common prudence to anticipate flood damage. One of the following must also occur:
    1. A general and temporary condition of flooding in the area near the described location must occur, even if the flood does not reach the building; or
    2. A legally authorized official must issue an evacuation order or other civil order for the community in which the building is located calling for measures to preserve life and property from the peril of flood.
This coverage does not increase the Coverage A or Coverage B limit of liability.

b. Property Removed to Safety

  1. We will pay up to $1,000 for the reasonable expenses you incur to move insured property to a place other than the described location that contains the property in order to protect it from flood or the imminent danger of flood. Reasonable expenses include the value of work, at the Federal minimum wage, you or a member of your household perform.
  2. If you move insured property to a location other than the described location that contains the property, in order to protect it from flood or the imminent danger of flood, we will cover such property while at that location for a period of 45 consecutive days from the date you begin to move it there. The personal property that is moved must be placed in a fully enclosed building or otherwise reasonably protected from the elements.
Any property removed, including a moveable home described in II.6.b. and c., must be placed above ground level or outside of the special flood hazard area.
This coverage does not increase the Coverage A or Coverage B limit of liability.

The information above was copied from the October 2015 NFIP Standard Flood Insurance Policy for Dwellings.


4/13/2021 5:50:10 PM
Rate This Article:

Have a question or comment about the information on this page?

Innovate . Educate . Improve Lives

The LSU AgCenter and the LSU College of Agriculture

Top