FEMA announced the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has launched FloodSmart.gov as a free Direct to Customer Flood Insurance Quoting Tool that is designed to assist customers in getting a flood insurance policy quote for their property and in securing a quoted policy.
Currently, the NFIP provides about $1.3 trillion in coverage for approximately 4.7 million policyholders in about 22,500 communities across the nation. FEMA noted that 40% of NFIP flood insurance claims occur outside high hazard areas, and it encourages the purchase of flood insurance even in areas with a low-to-moderate flooding risk.
“In this country, less than 4% of households have flood insurance, yet 99% of all communities have experienced a flood,” said NFIP Senior Executive Dr. Elizabeth Asche. “FEMA is working to make flood insurance more accessible and promote customer choice with its Direct to Customer (D2C) initiative, The D2C platform provides customers direct access to a property’s flood risk and the ability to purchase a flood policy from just about anywhere. We believe this new approach will appeal to customers that have never considered a policy before and we’re counting on it to help us narrow the insurance gap.”
