90% of all natural disasters involve flooding

It's spring. It's flood season. And 90% of all natural disasters in the US are related to flooding. Since we provide inventory services for homes and businesses to document their personal property (contents), we heard quite a few stories of the losses people in Indiana experienced last year.

Because of the extremely high dollar losses that result from flooding, the National Weather Service has launched a new Web page. The site provides essential information on what to know and do before, during and after a flood and offers a variety of safety tips and online tools. It also shows the effect and cost of flooding to millions of people and illustrates the point that floods can happen anywhere at any time of the year. Though we here in the Midwest don't fear hurricanes, the remnants of Ike produced heavy rainfall and flooding all the way up to the Great Lakes. The Midwest flood of June 2008 led to severe flooding in parts of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin and caused total damages of more than $5 billion.

Other resources are the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.), National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and I.I.I. facts and stats on flood insurance. Did you know that your standard homeownes policy does not provide flood insurance? If you have not purchased this separate policy, talk to your insurance agent.

I am hopeful that the flood victims completed their home or business inventory. If not, I personally know of an inventory company that does an excellent, professional job.