I have spent most of my life living close to rivers (Mississippi and St Croix) and varied lakes, and have a real respect for water and the danger it can present. I remember the floods of the last twenty years, and have been watching the devastation being wreaked on communities again this year. But, sometimes, even amid the tragedy, you almost have to laugh at the way God (or karma) works his mischief.

The National Guard and hordes of volunteers had busted their asses and erected a levy to protect a community, only to have it all come to naught by a muskrat that decided it was a good place to dig a tunnel, creating a leak in the levy which ultimately caused it to fail.

As one homeowner said, "We have all these guns in town and we could not shoot one damn muskrat?".

I am not sure just what about this story grabbed me but it has stuck with me for a couple days. People build their community in a low lying area, get a once in a hundred year flood, clean up and rebuild only to get another once in a hundred year flood within fifteen years, and then see all their work to stay safe from nature undone by one of nature's smallest creatures.......maybe it is time to think about moving.

Take a look at Lake Delton in Wisconsin. The footage is ureal, the entire lake drained taking many homes with it into the Wisconsin river. Nothing was covered insurance wise and those people lost everything they saved thier entire lives for. We have had more rain in souther wisconsin for the month of June than any other month in history. Lakes are at an all time high (for once ...people been complaining how low they have been for the last 5 years) to the point they have a ban on boats on them...figures I have a brand new on sitting in my driveway!

I feel badly for people that lose everything to a natural disaster, but I can only feel so bad for people that live near water and refuse to get flood insurance. I only feel so bad for people that live in hurricane areas without insurance (that keep rebuilding off the taxpayer's dime).

Mother nature eventually is going to flood you if you live in a flood plain or near water. Get insurance, period.

Get insurance, period.

I agree with you except, in many cases, that insurance is so prohibitively expensive they cannot purchase it. Of course, that's a darn good hint to NOT live in that location. Easy to say, damn hard to do.

I feel badly for people that lose everything to a natural disaster, but I can only feel so bad for people that live near water and refuse to get flood insurance. I only feel so bad for people that live in hurricane areas without insurance (that keep rebuilding off the taxpayer's dime).

Mother nature eventually is going to flood you if you live in a flood plain or near water. Get insurance, period.

Flood insurance isn't available period to those who lost their homes in Wisconsin. I work with a girl whos houses foundation is caving in from sink holes do to all the rain. Her house is destroyed, Fema is involved and the county was designated as disaster area..so she will be able to get a "loan" at 2% to fix her house (which she can't afford was barely making it in the first place) and two Fema will give a max 28K to each home. She will make it, however areas like Lake Delton that could not get flood insurance, nor wasn't declared a disaster area...lost every single thing. Hell they had them on the news last night...they are being charged property tax yet, and the government wont let them near thier property to check of items that may still be there. This isn't a case of people building homes on Hurricane areas, Tornado alleys, areas know to burn...the houses were built in areas that never EVER had floods in the history of the area.


Couple other things.
1) If your basement gets flooded through the walls, your insurance wont cover you.
2) If your basement gets flooded because your power went out and your sump pump couldnt work..your covered. Meaning your drain tiles are funneling the water into your crocks and everything is working as intended.

Flood insurance isn't available period to those who lost their homes in Wisconsin. I work with a girl whos houses foundation is caving in from sink holes do to all the rain. Her house is destroyed, Fema is involved and the county was designated as disaster area..so she will be able to get a "loan" at 2% to fix her house (which she can't afford was barely making it in the first place) and two Fema will give a max 28K to each home. She will make it, however areas like Lake Delton that could not get flood insurance, nor wasn't declared a disaster area...lost every single thing. Hell they had them on the news last night...they are being charged property tax yet, and the government wont let them near thier property to check of items that may still be there. This isn't a case of people building homes on Hurricane areas, Tornado alleys, areas know to burn...the houses were built in areas that never EVER had floods in the history of the area.


Couple other things.
1) If your basement gets flooded through the walls, your insurance wont cover you.
2) If your basement gets flooded because your power went out and your sump pump couldnt work..your covered. Meaning your drain tiles are funneling the water into your crocks and everything is working as intended.

If there's never been flooding in the areas, then there should have been no issues in getting flood insurance. It's really only hard to get insurance when the risk is too high to the insurance companies. They may not have been able to get FEMA flood insurance, but they should have been able to get additional home owners flood insurance from a private insurance company.

There's no danger of my house flooding, but if I wanted to pay for flood insurance, I could get it.

Following that logic, you should see that they didn't have flood insurance for the same reason you don't.

Following that logic, you should see that they didn't have flood insurance for the same reason you don't.

I don't live next to a lake. Right next to lake = far greater danger than miles outside of a flood plain.

http://www.channel3000.com/news/16560561/detail.html

Some of the owners of the destroyed homes said that they tried earlier to get flood insurance, but didn't qualify because their village wasn't a participating member of the NFIP

"We were concerned about flooding and they said, 'That would never happen. It's never happened and we have control on both ends of the lake with dams and you're fine," Pekar said.



http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/17/pf/saving/toptips/index.htm?section=money_pf_saving


You have to buy flood insurance from the federal government through an insurance company. If your insurance company doesn't offer flood insurance, you can contact the NFIP directly at (888) 379-9531.
If you buy a house in a designated high-risk flood zone and receive a mortgage loan from a federally regulated or insured lender, your lender is legally bound to require you to get and maintain flood insurance. Keep in mind, there is a 30-day waiting period before the policy becomes effective.
You can get up to $250,000 for the house and $100,000 for what's inside it. And your premiums will vary based on what kind of risk you represent. Most policies cost $600.


Another woman I know who is trying to get out of paying flood insurance bcause its forced on her is having a hell of a time getting out of it, its $1900 a year for her. If she isn't flooded out now she never will be according to her, well she would be the one to get hit next.

$250,000 is about half what the houses were worth in Lake Delton. Still not sure why they couldnt contacted NFIP above, everything I read up to I found that said, they simply could not get it.

http://www.channel3000.com/news/16560561/detail.html


http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/17/pf/saving/toptips/index.htm?section=money_pf_saving



Another woman I know who is trying to get out of paying flood insurance because its forced on her is having a hell of a time getting out of it, its $1900 a year for her. If she isn't flooded out now she never will be according to her, well she would be the one to get hit next.

$250,000 is about half what the houses were worth in Lake Delton. Still not sure why they couldn't contacted NFIP above, everything I read up to I found that said, they simply could not get it.

Just a FYI that $250,000 isn't the cost of property plus home, that's the cost of rebuilding the home. My home I just purchased for $317,000 and it was appraised for $412,500. However, my home owners insurance covers a cost of $185,000 which is the estimated maximum it would cost to rebuild the home. The land underneath the home is still owned by them if it gets flooded or not.

Its likely if you can't afford the $600 / year, the cost to rebuild the house probably isn't worth over $250k.

I don't live next to a lake. Right next to lake = far greater danger than miles outside of a flood plain.


The lake in question was more or less created for the Wisconsin Dells water shows; there was no evidence that it could possibly ever cause the devastation it did. It almost goes to the "perfect storm" philosophy where a certain sequence of events had to happen before there could ever be a problem, and pretty much anyone you could have asked in the area six months ago would have laughed at the idea of ever seeing what has now become a reality.

Interestingly, Wisconsin's Governor has made recreating the lake a priority, due to the tourist monies. Not sure what he has in mind for recreating the retirement homes and personal property of his state's residents who lived along this lake, and others.

Indeed, Mother Nature is a Bitch! And Governors can be real bastards.