is Your City Helping You Get Cheaper Flood Insurance?

Hello Hampton Roads,

If Virginia is for Lovers then Hampton Roads is for Water Lovers. Many people are attracted to the area because of the water lifestyle--the boating, surfing, swimming and fishing and pretty much anything else fun you can think of doing in the water. While being surrounded by water has it's perks, the downside is the risk of flooding.    It's not uncommon for a bad storm to flood the streets in certain neighborhoods. 

Flood insurance can be costly and to help mitigate the risk of flooding most of Hampton Roads participates in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) which establishes ordinances for flooding based on federal guidlines and also has another program called the Community Rating System (CRS) where communities can do more over and above the federal guidelines.   

In the CRS, communities do addtional things to improve their resillience like implementing higher standards for building above base flood elevation, or  raise awareness by providing education on flooding and flood insurance to the public.  

There are 19 possible activities divided into 4 categories that a community may participate in:

• Public Information
• Mapping and Regulatoins
• Flood Damage Reduction
• Warning and Response

These actions allow the communities to earn points and for every 500 points earned, policy holders get a 5% discount on their NFIP flood insurance policy premiums up to a maximum of 45% for Class 1 communities.  Here's how the points system breaks down in terms of discounts earned for properties in special flood hazard areas (SFHA) and in non-special flood hazard areas (Non-SFHA):

As of April 2022, here's how Hampton Roads ranks:

Thanks for Reading,

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