Buy Flood Insurance Now -- Be Covered for Hurricane Season 

Release Date: April 30, 2007
Release Number: 1604-545

» More Information on Mississippi Hurricane Katrina

BILOXI, Miss. -- Get your flood insurance now and be covered for hurricane season. That’s the message from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA).

FEMA offers its National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to homeowners, renters and business owners provided their communities use the NFIP’s strategies for reducing flood risk – but the clock is winding down. With a 30-day waiting period required before the policy takes effect, now is the time to buy.

In the face of mounting flood losses and escalating costs of disaster relief to U.S. taxpayers, Congress established the NFIP in 1968. The goals of the program are to reduce future flood damage through floodplain management and to provide people with flood insurance.

“NFIP flood insurance is the best protection you can have against the devastating financial losses that floods cause,” said Dennis Kizziah, acting director of FEMA’s Mississippi Transitional Recovery Office.

Community participation in the NFIP is voluntary, although some states require NFIP partnership as part of their floodplain management programs. In Mississippi, communities in all three coastal counties are participants in good standing with the NFIP. More than 270 Mississippi communities participate in the NFIP. To find out if your community is a member, contact your local building official or emergency management official.

“Katrina, the worst natural disaster in American history, taught many lessons,” said MEMA Director Mike Womack. “One of them is that even with all the information and assistance that is available, there really is no substitute for being prepared. Purchasing flood insurance is certainly part of that preparedness.”

The NFIP has paid policyholders more than $16 billion in claims as a result of Hurricane Katrina damages.

For more information or to find an insurance agent near you who sells flood insurance, visit www.floodsmart.gov.

FEMA coordinates the federal government’s role in preparing for, preventing, mitigating the effects of, responding to, and recovering from all domestic disasters, whether natural or man-made, including acts of terror.

Last Modified: Wednesday, 02-May-2007 06:47:25