Peak Hurricane Season is Here—Remind Your
Customers to Obtain Flood Insurance Before It’s
Too Late!
Read the important information below to learn about peak hurricane season flood risks, and about
tools from FloodSmart that will help you encourage your customers to protect themselves with flood
insurance.
Protect Your Community
For many communities, Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee were dramatic reminders that the
height of the 2011 Hurricane Season has arrived, which means a significant risk of flooding in
coastal communities and far inland as well. Encourage residents of your community to protect their
financial security by obtaining flood insurance now—and remind them that most policies take 30
days to go into effect. Let them know that flood insurance is more affordable than they may think.
The average policy is around $600 a year and in moderate-to-low-risk areas, Preferred Risk Policies
(PRPs) start as low as $129 a year.
Visit FloodSmart.gov to find essential information and downloadable tools that you can post to your
own website to remind residents and business owners in your community to prepare for the dangers
of flooding all year long. Please share these interactive resources with your colleagues and partners
as well.
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Cost-of-Flooding Tool: allows property owners to see how expensive just a few inches of
water can be when it comes to re-building their homes and businesses.
One-Step Flood Risk Profile: allows users to enter their address into an online resource
to learn their property’s flood risk.
Hurricane Season Facts: explains the realities of hurricane season risks.
Hurricane Season Widget: a simple interactive application that you can post to your
website that includes helpful flood risk/flood insurance information and tips you can share
with your customers.
Levee Simulator: demonstrates how levees work and the risks home and business owners
face when they fail.
Have your customers experienced damage from Irene or Lee? If so, click here to learn more
about the steps you should take to help them process their claims.
SPECIAL ALERT TO AGENTS AND FLOOD INSURANCE PROGRAM STAKEHOLDERS IN
TEXAS AND SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA—GROUP FLOOD INSURANCE POLICIES (GFIPS)
WILL SOON EXPIRE
Hurricane Ike rolled ashore around Galveston, TX on the morning of September 13, 2008 and turned
out to be the third-costliest hurricane to make landfall. Two months following the event, FEMA
issued Group Flood Insurance Policies (GFIPs) for residents in coastal communities in the states of
Texas and Louisiana affected by Ike. Approximately 85 percent of the property owners who obtained
these GFIPs are located in Orange and Galveston Counties (Texas). The GFIP program was
established to help people who receive a disaster grant to meet the requirement to have and
maintain flood insurance. By the end of the three-year GFIP policy term, GFIP certificate holders are
required to purchase and maintain a standard flood insurance policy in order to be eligible for future
disaster assistance.
The clock is ticking for many of the more than 10,000 Texas and Louisiana residents who have been
covered by GFIPs because both GFIPs will expire on November 12. Individuals who do not
purchase a new policy—and subsequent owners of their properties—will no longer be able to
receive federal aid for repair and rebuilding costs that would have been covered by a flood policy.
Certificate holders will be receiving non-renewal notices from FEMA and reminder notices from
FloodSmart. For more information about how to engage these certificate holders to ensure they
retain financial protection from flood damage, please email [email protected].
FIVE GOOD REASONS FOR SELLING FLOOD INSURANCE
Your customers may be more at risk than you think. Floods are the number one natural disaster
in the U.S., and although home and business owners in the high-risk Special Flood Hazard Areas
(SFHAs) are required to carry flood insurance, more than 20 percent of National Flood Insurance
Program (NFIP) claims come from outside mapped high-risk areas. Simply put, anywhere it rains, it
can flood—and you don’t have to be caught in a major storm to experience significant damage.
Periods of sustained rainfall, clogged drainage systems, and changes in the flow of ground water
due to new construction can all cause flooding. In September of 2009, vast flooding affected
thousands of Atlanta homeowners located in low-risk areas. In May of 2010, it happened on a similar
scale in Nashville. Then there’s Minot, North Dakota, a town that “tamed” its river and was mapped
out of the floodplain yet still experienced severe flooding for more than six weeks this summer.
Wherever you live, flooding can happen; so it’s up to you to ensure your customers know their risk
and take action to reduce it.
Your customers may find it surprisingly affordable. The average flood insurance policy is around
$600 a year, and in moderate-to-low risk areas, homeowners can protect their properties with lowcost Preferred Risk Policies (PRPs) that start at just $129 a year. That’s a small price for a lot of
protection—during the past five years the average flood claim has been more than $30,000.
It will grow your business. Your success depends on your ability to understand your customers’
needs. And if your customers only have homeowners or commercial property insurance, they need
flood insurance to ensure their finances are protected. Cross-selling has always been an important
driver of business growth—and selling flood insurance will protect your customers and strengthen
your profits as well.
It will protect your business. In the long run, the success of your business depends on your
success in protecting your customers. The two leading causes for Errors and Omissions claims are
not offering coverage and not offering the right amount of coverage. Protect yourself from costly
lawsuits by making sure your clients have access to all of their protection options.
You’ll get support from FloodSmart, and tools to help you succeed. To alert consumers
nationwide of the importance of flood insurance, the NFIP FloodSmart campaign utilizes multiple
communications channels—including paid advertising, direct mail, public education and media
outreach. You can build on this awareness by using a variety of FloodSmart resources to engage
your customers. Our Co-Op advertising program will reimburse up to 75 percent of your costs for
placing print and radio ads about flood insurance and provides pre-recorded spots and templates
you can utilize for placing the ads. Our Mail-on-Demand program offers pre-built templates you can
use to create engaging direct mail to your clients. Our agent website at Agents.FloodSmart.gov lists
available opportunities to receive the training you’ll need to sell flood insurance along with shareable
interactive digital tools to help you market to you customers.
Perhaps best of all, once you’ve completed the training, you’ll have the opportunity to be listed in the
FloodSmart.gov agent referral locator—which connects thousands of prospective customers with
“floodsavvy” agents each year.
FOR OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND AGENT BETH GISMONDI, BEING “FLOODSAVVY” IS
GOOD BUSINESS
For insurance agent Beth Gismondi, selling flood insurance has become easier and more profitable,
thanks largely to recent innovations that have made it much easier to write policies and to the many
tools she finds at Agents.FloodSmart.gov. Visit https://Agents.FloodSmart.gov/manageagent/newsand-publications/video-library to learn more about how and why flood has become an essential part
of her business.
BE LIKE BETH—GET THE TRAINING YOU NEED TO BE A FLOODSAVVY AGENT
Training is an absolute necessity when it comes to selling flood insurance. It allows you to maintain
your knowledge of the product and enhance your FloodSmart expertise. It also helps you follow
through on the responsibility to clearly explain the importance of flood insurance protection to
existing and prospective clients. And don’t forget that it also enables you to participate in
FloodSmart’s Co-Op advertising program—which reimburses you up to $10,000 for advertising
costs. Click here to learn about training opportunities in or near your community.
SAVE MONEY WITH MAIL-ON-DEMAND
Agents can save 35 percent with a one-time order on the Cross-sell letter. That’s up to 1,000 free
mailings savings of up to $500. Find out more at Agents.FloodSmart.gov and look for Agent MailOn-Demand under Quick Links.
CO-OP FUNDING UPDATE
Co-Op funding will become available beginning October 2011. Visit Agents.FloodSmart.gov for
updates. Notification emails will be sent to all agents who have opted-in to receive information from
FloodSmart. Please also note that changes are anticipated for 2012, so be sure to check your
emails and the website for updates before signing contracts for 2012 advertising.
ADVERTISING UPDATE
The FloodSmart campaign features an array of television, print and radio advertising that runs in
communities across the nation. This includes Direct Response Television (DRTV) advertising and
online display ads , and there will be a heightened advertising presence in communities that have
experienced significant flooding, including Miami, West Palm Beach, Ft. Meyers and Panama City in
Florida, New Orleans and Lake Charles in Louisiana, Beaumont and Houston in Texas and Biloxi, in
Mississippi. For the first time, flood insurance is being promoted through FloodSmart radio
advertising. Television ads can be viewed (and promoted via email to your customers) at the
FloodSmart consumer site at www.FloodSmart.gov/floodsmart/pages/videos/video_index.jsp.
ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS “ON THE MAP?” GET IMPORTANT UPDATES ON
FEMA’S MAPPING EFFORT
FEMA’s Risk MAP (Mapping, Assessment, Planning) program is a continuation of the Flood Map
Modernization effort. Risk MAP is providing updated flood hazard data to assist communities in
better understanding their current flood risk to help provide guidance when making building and
development decisions. With updated flood risk information, you will be able to help business
owners, tenants and homeowners make more informed decisions about how to protect their financial
stability.
Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) identify a community’s flood risk, and if the new maps reflect a
change in flood risk, flood insurance requirements for property owners may also change. Because
these efforts could affect your clients’ flood insurance needs, you must stay informed about flood
map updates so you know what to do and say when your own community undergoes remapping.
Click here to view the map update schedule.
UNDERSTANDING ZONE D: A NEW FACT SHEET
As FEMA continues to update flood maps through its Risk MAP program, communities will see
changes in their flood risk and flood zones. Some areas will be newly mapped as high risk zones
(e.g., “AE” or “VE”) while others will see the risk reduced due to being newly placed in moderate-tolow risk zones (e.g., “X” or “X shaded”). Sometimes, a building is mapped into a lesser-known flood
zone, Zone D. To help answer questions about the availability of flood insurance, lender
requirements, grandfathering and other issues a new fact sheet about Zone D has just been
released. It can be downloaded from the FEMA Library at
www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=4794.
Visit the National Flood Insurance Program Web sites at
www.fema.gov/business/nfip, Agents.FloodSmart.gov and FloodSmart.gov.
FEMA 500 C Street SW, Washington, D.C. 20472.