Don't Just Get Flood Insurance -- Keep It

The floods sweeping through the Midwest have breached levees, pushed up commodity prices to new records and forced tens of thousands of people from their damaged or at-risk homes across six states.

In the North Central states where most of the flooding has occurred, about 17% of homeowners have flood insurance, according to a survey by the Insurance Information Institute. That portion is in line with the national average and has nearly doubled from just 9% a year ago. Still, some at-risk areas across the U.S. still do not have sufficient coverage.

For instance, NFIP participation in the Gulf Coast spiked following the devastating 2005 hurricane season. Many had not been covered for damages that Hurricane Katrina caused as it ripped through the area, destroying entire neighborhoods with water and wind.

Still, many homeowners did not renew their flood-insurance policies when the next seasons didn't bring such destruction. The III survey showed that 17% of homeowners in the South have flood insurance today, down from 20% a year ago.

"We've seen it with floods, we've seen it with earthquakes," says Loretta Worters, spokeswoman for the III. "After the first year, often, it starts to drop off and goes back to levels from before the disaster."

Floods -- including inland flooding, flash floods and seasonal storms -- occur in every area of the U.S., according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees a subsidized insurance program called the National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP.