The Florida Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (FAIFA) warned yesterday that homeowners, renters and businesses need to look into purchasing flood insurance before the hurricane season arrives.

Because there is a 30-day waiting period, "Floridians cannot wait until hurricanes are reported to purchase this coverage," warned Bob Lotane, spokesman for Tallahassee-based FAIFA. "That is way too late. They need to take time now to consider whether to protect themselves."

FAIFA noted that many policyholders assume their policy will cover flood losses, but in fact a separate policy must be purchased through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which can be provided by local insurance agents and is affordable.

FAIFA said that, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, almost all areas of Florida are susceptible to flooding in varying degrees and up to 25 percent of flood claims occur in areas considered to be at low-to-moderate risk of flooding.

The group noted that one of the unfortunate lessons of the 2004-2005 hurricane seasons is that while wind is a severe threat, hurricanes are also massive flood producers. FAIFA said many people, in Florida and on the Gulf Coast, thought their policies covered flood damage only to learn they were not covered after being flooded out.

Floridians not only have to worry about flood damage caused by hurricanes, but the heavy rains that can be very prevalent in coming months have the ability to flood properties and cause substantial losses, FAIFA warned.

These losses would not be covered by standard property insurance policies. According to recent data, Florida has about one million flood insurance policies, which represents about one-fifth of the total number of policies in the NFIP, FAIFA said.

Special Reports /

Fla. Group Urges Public To Buy Flood Coverage

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