Majority of homeowners devastated by Hurricane Helene in the Southeast don’t have flood insurance

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), criticized for being inept and ill-prepared in responding to Helene, estimates that only four percent of homeowners in America have bought flood insurance, despite 99 percent of US counties experiencing flooding since 1996, CBS noted. The Insurance Information Institute is slightly more optimistic in its assessment of flood preparedness, saying that six percent of homeowners have flood insurance either through FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program or through a private insurance company.

Helene’s flood waters destroyed everything from mansions to mobile homes in Florida's barrier islands that run from St. Petersburg to Clearwater. In Pinellas and Taylor counties, where damage was considerable, homeowners had insurance in 25 percent and 5 percent of the cases, respectively, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

But Florida is the relatively good news. Beyond that state, just 1 percent of homeowners who experienced flooding had flood insurance, the institute told CBS News. One of the reasons for the low subscription rate is that flooding is not part of the general home insurance package and is an add-on. Sometimes, only the federal government will provide this type of insurance. To secure a government-insured mortgage in a high-risk area, flood insurance is a must. Some banks will withhold mortgage approval unless the insurance is obtained first.

After they buy or rent a home, people decide whether to buy flood insurance based on the location of the property and whether the domicile sits in a high-risk zone. But such thinking could engender a "false sense of security," according to Georgina Sanchez, a faculty fellow and research scholar at the Center for Geospatial Analytics at North Carolina State University. "This perception can discourage residents from flood insurance," she told CBS.

Sanchez's center offers a flood database that enables people to see if their property lies in an area that is or could be susceptible to flooding.

"Many of our homes, businesses and infrastructure are situated within 800 feet, or roughly two city blocks, from the edge of the 100-year floodplain," areas that could potentially be hit by floods, Sanchez told CBS. And that’s where a lot of homes are located. "We all love to live near water," she said. "But we're at a point where we have to ask, do we want to keep putting people in harm's way."