Why You Need Flood Insurance for Your Business

6/16/2018 (Permalink)

You may think your commercial property insurance covers everything you need to take care of flood, fire, storm, and any other damage. In truth, unless your business is insured by flood protection, you may find yourself high and dry the next time rough waters come to Chattanooga, TN.

Why Flood Insurance Is Necessary

Damage from flooding related to natural disasters actually isn’t covered in your standard commercial insurance package. It may seem strange, but if a storm strikes your area and causes flooding, your commercial insurance should cover everything under storm damage except the effects of the flood. This includes damage due to any of these causes:

• Wind
• Hail
• Impact from flying debris

Basically any issues caused by the storm except for a flood are generally covered by most aspects of your commercial property insurance. Flood damage, however, requires a wholly separate policy.

What Flood Insurance Covers

Flood insurance covers the damage done to your building by rising floodwaters from natural disasters. For example, if a tsunami swamps your coastal city and your building ends up in six feet of water, the damage caused by seawater permeating your building would be covered by flood insurance. However, if an earthquake strikes and your building floods because the seismic shocks broke your pipes, this would actually not be covered, because the flooding itself is a side effect of a natural disaster rather than the natural disaster in and of itself.

What Other Things Aren't Covered

Even if your insurance plan may pay for things such as flood remediation, secondary damage is often not covered, especially if it’s considered preventable. Secondary damage includes things such as mold and mildew caused by standing water left behind after flooding or infestations of insects that might be attracted to that standing water. Flood insurance only covers immediate and direct damage caused by the flood, and subsequent remediation and cleanup.
Visit http://www.SERVPROeastchattanooga.com/ for more information on flooding.