The Texas Department of Insurance recommends flood insurance for Texans, but reported that only 14% of Texas residents have it.
Nearly one-fifth, 18%, of Texas properties have a higher than 26% chance of being seriously affected by flooding. Almost half of flood insurance policies are for properties outside of high-risk zones.
The agency’s Mistie Hinote said policies usually range from $500 to $700 a year, depending on how high the risk for flooding is in your area. Home flood policies cover up to $250,000 in damages, and policies for belongings cover up to $100,000.
After the flooding from the heavy rains last week, the DFW area sustained $6 billion worth of damages.
AccuWeather Chief Executive Joel N. Myers stated that most of the damages were to “homes, businesses, roadways, and vehicles as well as power outages.” He noted that the power outages will result in “food spoilage that will be expensive to replace due to recent inflation.”
These damages have made this storm one of the costliest in Texas ever. Only Hurricanes Harvey in 2017 and Ike in 2008, each of which caused damages in the tens of billions, exceeded this event.
The extent of the damage prompted Dallas County to declare a state of emergency Monday afternoon. Gov. Greg Abbott signed a disaster declaration on Tuesday for 23 counties, including Dallas and Tarrant.
In the past year, there have been seven disaster declarations in Texas. Three were for winter weather, and three were for wildfires.
Between Sunday and Monday, 334 emergency calls were made, 147 of which were reports of people trapped in high water. There were 432 reported outages, as well.
Lanes on Interstate 30 were closed due to the high water levels. Fort Worth resident Karen Cox told the Dallas Morning News that she saw cars previously parked on the street floating by, including her daughter’s.