If your clients have never experienced a flood, be grateful. By a stroke of luck, these disasters have never found their doors. However, they cannot assume that their luck is permanent. Good fortune in the past won’t prevent flooding in the future.
That’s because some things, like weather and financial investments, can’t be accurately predicted over the long haul. If you’ve read an investment fund prospectus, you know that past performance is no guarantee of future results.
The same is true of weather. We simply can’t make accurate long-term predictions when it comes to hurricanes, storm surges, levee failures and other events that cause flooding. Weather should come with a warning label past weather is no guarantee of future weather results—but it doesn’t.
That’s too bad, because property owners who haven’t experienced severe weather or flooding can develop a false sense of security. They can believe that the absence of flooding in the past somehow makes them and their property immune from future flooding. They can begin to feel invulnerable. They think flooding won’t happen to them.
This is wishful—and dangerous—thinking. A naively sunny disposition can make homeowners vulnerable to catastrophic, flood-related loss. Thankfully with flood insurance those losses can be dampened–and your clients’ ability to rebuild greatly expanded upon.
The cost of unpreparedness is high, but with a flood insurance policy as a safety net, the cost of being prepared is manageable. Extreme weather events are becoming more unpredictable and severe, so the best thing your clients can do is protect the life they’ve built.
Planning for disasters before they happen is the best way to recover from severe weather and costly flooding when they occur. For many property owners, flood insurance is a cornerstone of preparedness.
Help convey your clients’ risk and talk to them about how to protect their homes and personal property from flooding with information at floodsmart.gov.