Page 57 - BusinessWest September 15, 2021

Insurance
Rising
Tide
Few Homeowners Have Flood Insurance, but Should They?
After a summer of heavy rains in Massachusetts — and across the Northeast,
for that matter — plenty of homeowners discovered their insurance policies don’t cover flood damage, and many are no doubt considering whether they should add such coverage. And it’s a question that may be raised even more often in the future, as climate change produces stronger and more frequent storms.
LBy Joseph Bednar
ast week, President Biden sat with state government officials to talk about the growing dangers of hurri- canes and floods.
“For decades, scientists have warned that extreme weather would be more extreme and climate change was
here. And we’re living through it now,” he said. “We don’t have any more time.”
But it wasn’t Florida he was visiting, or Louisiana or Mississippi. It was New Jersey, which had just experienced, according to one county commissioner, its fourth 100-year storm in the past two decades. The event turned tragic, with close to 40 people dead in New Jersey and New York, many trapped in basements and cars.
In other words, the effects of climate change on storms is no lon- ger a problem for other regions. It’s a problem for the Northeast, too.
And it’s on the minds of those in the insurance industry.
“What was once a 100-year flood is now a 10-year flood,” said Trish Vassallo, director of Operations at Encharter Insurance in Amherst. “We’re seeing things now that we never anticipated.”
INSURANCE
SEPTEMBER 15, 2021 57
BusinessWest