Thousands of Colorado homeowners may face a personal financial disaster in the wake of the state's severe floods.
Standard homeowner insurance policies don't cover damage from floods, and most homeowners in the state don't have separate flood insurance.
In Colorado, only 22,000 homes and businesses have flood insurance, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Most of those are residential policies.
FEMA urged more Colorado residents to buy flood insurance — for homes and businesses — last year after wildfires destroyed or damaged more than 344,000 acres of land.
Fires destroy natural forest barriers and increase erosion risk, flash floods, mud flows and debris flows..
In three Colorado counties hard hit by the floods, the percentage of single-family homes with flood insurance coverage is in the low single digits, FEMA and Census Bureau data show.
Last year, Congress passed flood insurance reform, which called on FEMA to raise rates to reflect true flood risks and make the program more financially stable.
Nationally, the average flood insurance premium runs $650 a year, FEMA says.
Consumers should consider flood insurance even if they're not in a mapped flood plain.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/09/16/flood-insurance-colorado/2823189/