Increased hurricane activity mustchange the conversation around flood coverage between agents andbrokers and their clients. (Photo: Shuttersock)

We've been here before. Only this time, we need to truly learnsomething from what is happening.

As I write this, Hurricane Harvey is relentlessly lashing theLone Star State with a deadly trifecta of heavy rains, high windsand, as if that wasn't enough, tornadoes. More than 30 inches of rain (9 trillion gallonsof water, enough to fill the entire Great Salt Lake in Salt LakeCity — twice) has been dumped on the Greater Houston area andSoutheast Texas. It is a disaster of unprecedented magnitude, andat press time, it is still not over.

Only in weeks and months to come will the true scope of thedestruction be revealed as the flood waters recede, and it willtake far longer than that for the Houston area to get back toanything remotely resembling normalcy. One thing, however, seemsclear: the billions in losses incurred in Houston willsurely rival or even exceed those of Hurricane Katrina.

The thing about unprecedented events is they have no precedent.But that doesn't mean we don't know what's going to happen next,for those who learned from Katrina and Sandy.

Once the roads clear and damages can be assessed, the need foradjusters will surely exceed the number of skilled professionalswho are up the task. Adjusters will be pulled in from nearby statesto help assess the damage — not all of them skilled.

As sure as death draws flies, shady contractors will be on thelookout for desperate homeowners and property owners toprey upon. And many, many folks will be taken advantage of, asthese crooks demand payment up front for promised repairs thatnever happen — or, at best, are started and aren't finished.

Thousands of homeowners will be furious when they learn thattheir policy doesn't cover their flood losses. And that's the worstpart of all, for an industry that already faces its share ofreputational issues.

There's a very good reason why P&C insurers often aren'ttrusted by the general public, and this is a big part of it. Theindustry continues to fail in its responsibility to educate peopleabout the exposures from flood, what's covered by their policy, andwhat isn't. Within the industry, that's something that is, for themost part, understood; but out in the real world, it isn't.

Don't tell me that it's a conversation that doesn't need to behad, that the risk is so low, that your client doesn't live in anarea that could ever see a flood. The mindset around flood beingprimarily a coastal problem needs to change. The truth is this: Youmight not live in a primary flood area, but everyone lives in asecondary flood area. Everyone.

That is where the teaching moment comes in. Harvey must changethe conversation around flood coverage between agents and brokersand their clients. It's not a topic that can be avoided anylonger.

Likewise, this disaster must also elevate the conversationaround the increased privatization of flood cover in this country.The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is some$26 billion in debt. Even if Harvey serves as the catalyst for its reauthorization at the end ofSeptember (and that deadline is approaching pretty quickly, fora Congress more polarized than ever), the NFIP is not a long-term,sustainable solution. It's a politically complicated, worst-casesolution to a greater problem that is only going to accelerate inyears to come.

One of the provisions for Write-Your-Own insurers whoparticipate in the program is that they cannot create their owncompeting coverage products around flood; they must use thestandard form. They can administer the product on behalf of theNFIP, sure, but standard-market insurers who are best positioned toassume the right risks for the proper price are prevented fromdoing so due to non-compete clauses.

Ask yourself: How many Houston-level, unprecedented disastersneed to be suffered before we shift flood risks where they reallybelong, and how long can you wait to breach the topic of floodcoverage with your clients before the losses mount to levels aboveall of our heads?