“People think the only people that need flood insurance are people who live right on the beach or on the banks of a river that has a history of flooding,” Bach said. People usually buy insurance after disasters when the risk is visceral, said Amy Bach, the executive director of insurance consumers group United Policyholders. Yet California’s drought has dulled people’s sense of the risk of flooding. WATCH: Will climate change lead to more intense weather events? It takes targeted study to know the role of climate change in specific weather, but warmer air means storms like the ones that deluged California in recent weeks can carry more water. It caused damage in 41 of the state’s 58 counties. The water washed out roads, knocked out power and created mudslides by soaking wildfire-charred hills. In California, 32 trillion gallons of rain and snow fell since Christmas. Private insurers issued the rest, according to the most recent state data from 2021. The federal government is the insurer for the bulk of them – about 191,000 as of December. That means only about 2 percent of properties are covered against flooding. In California, only about 230,000 homes and other buildings have flood insurance policies, which are separate from homeowners insurance. “I didn’t think it would flood this bad,” he explained from an evacuation center, worried that water damaged wiring and air conditioning equipment. Emergency crews showed up with boats to float Starks and other residents of his rural mobile home park in Acampo to safety.īeyond the physical destruction, the storm could pack a financial hit: Starks does not have flood insurance. (AP) - On Sunday morning, Kyle Starks woke up to floodwaters that reached the door of his Jeep after yet another heavy rain storm drenched California.

Flood insurance cost california