The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) provides federally backed flood insurance within communities that enact and enforce floodplain regulations. Since its inception in 1968, the NFIP has been very successful in helping flood victims get back on their feet. As of October 1, 2016, there were 5.1 million residential and commercial policies in force, with $1.25 trillion in written coverage with annual premiums of about $3.6 billion. From 1978 through March 2016, over 2.2 million losses were paid, totaling over $54 billion.
To be covered by a flood insurance policy (for the structure and/or its contents), a property must be in a community that participates in the NFIP. To qualify for the NFIP, a community adopts and enforces a floodplain management ordinance to regulate development in flood hazard areas. The objective of the ordinance is to minimize the potential for flood damage to future development. Today, over 22,200 communities in 56 states and territories participate in the NFIP.
The NFIP has been effective in requiring new buildings to be protected from damage by a 1% chance flood, also known as the 100-year or base flood. However, flood damage still results from floods that exceed the base flood, from flooding in unmapped areas, and from flooding that affects buildings constructed before the community joined the NFIP.
Under the Community Rating System (CRS), communities can be rewarded for doing more than simply regulating construction of new buildings to the minimum national standards. Under the CRS, the flood insurance premiums of a community’s residents and businesses are discounted to reflect that community’s work to reduce flood damage to existing buildings, manage development in areas not mapped by the NFIP, protect new buildings beyond the minimum NFIP protection level, preserve and/or restore natural functions of floodplains, help insurance agents obtain flood data, and help people obtain flood insurance.
The following links to flood protection information and documents assisting with flood protection information are listed below:
- https://www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program
- https://www.floodsmart.gov/
- City of Radcliff Flood Information Newsletter
General Public: (800) 427-4661
Agents: (800) 720-1093
Lenders: (800) 611-6125
TDD: (800) 427-5593
