The number of Americans with flood insurance is on the rise, yet Hurricane Florence is likely to make it painfully clear that too many homeowners in the Carolinas and other vulnerable regions remain unprotected.
An analysis of federal flood insurance records by The Associated Press found there were roughly 5.1 million active flood insurance policies in the U.S. as of July 31, up from 4.94 million a year earlier.
The Carolinas had modest gains—a 2.5% increase in South Carolina and a 3.5% increase in North Carolina.
But large gaps in coverage remain.
South Carolina is the second-highest insured state for flooding, with roughly 65% of properties in flood hazard areas insured. But in North Carolina, where forecasters say the storm might bring the most destructive round of flooding in state history, flood coverage is less common, with only 35% of at-risk properties insured.
Most of the gains observed in the federal flood insurance data over the past 12 months occurred in Texas, with about 145,000 new policies. Insurance experts say that Hurricane Harvey, which brought tremendous flood damage to Texas and Louisiana late last summer, helped increase public awareness that homeowners need flood insurance.
“That’s terrific. Nothing sells flood insurance like a storm,” said Robert Hunter, who ran the National Flood Insurance Program in the 1970s.
Still, federal officials say there are too many Americans in vulnerable areas who lack flood insurance—even after storms such as Sandy, Matthew and Harvey caused widespread property damage and financial losses with storm surge and rainfall. A look at the five-year and 10-year trends shows a decline in the number of flood insurance policies nationwide.
