With yet another unpredictable hurricane season upon us, we are faced with the grim reality that too many home and business owners remain without flood insurance. A local Houston, TX news station recently aired a short piece about flood insurance requirements and disaster assistance. Choosing to forgo flood insurance and instead depend on disaster assistance could be a very large financial mistake. Assistance may be denied if it was provided in the past and the property owner has failed to secure or maintain flood insurance.

Even those who do qualify for disaster assistance will likely find themselves coming up very short on the funds needed to get their lives back to normal. Take Harris County, TX as an example - according to FEMA, the average Individual Assistance grant paid to Harvey survivors was just $4,200; while the average NFIP claim payment was $113,000.

Learn more about disaster assistance from FEMA, and Why You Need Flood Insurance from Floodsmart.gov. FEMA has also released a new brochure available for download that you can share with your clients: Why Do I Need Flood Insurance?