How you can get flood insruance in New Orleans and how to save money on flood insurance cost.

By VA / July 19, 2022

Can you get flood insurance in New Orleans?

50% of greater New Orleans lies above sea level. That’s good news!

You read that statistic correctly.

50%.

Said another way – and maybe a bit more jarring:

Half of New Orleans is below sea level, and development is why.

While there are many reasons why the original French settlers built New Orleans on the natural high points along the Mississippi River. It took them a hundred years to figure out how to drain the natural levee and swamp, and in this process, they sink New Orleans.

30,000 acres were converted from swamp to dry land. This transformation from swamp to suburbs has had its hard times of consequences. An early consequence was in the 1970s, several houses exploded when cracked gas lines linked vapors into the homes. New Orleans now has more flexible pipes that reduce the risk of houses exploding.

In this article, we will detail the answer to can you get flood insurance in New Orleans and discuss the best way to get flood insurance in Louisiana, including the methodologies of letting a Flood Nerd shop for you. And we will share a bit of information that can give you a leg up when it comes to flood insurance costs.

Flood Insurance in New Orleans

Louisiana flood insurance consumers can purchase most flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). There are a few private flood insurers and surplus lines options that we can shop for you.

Flood insurance in Louisiana is often required for homeowners and business owners in high-risk flood zones.

Louisiana Flood Insurance: Just one part of the flood insurance equation.

To plan your flood insurance quote in Louisiana. You will first have to understand that your homeowners or business policy exclude flooding as something that is covered. So the only way to get the coverage is to get a stand-alone Louisiana flood insurance policy.

According to FEMA, which is in charge of creating the Louisiana flood insurance rate maps, there are 452,000+ active flood insurance policies. Unfortunately, as of 2017, there was a drop in flood insurance policies within New Orleans by 3.8-present. According to FEMA’s record, 3,200 more properties could flood and don’t have coverage.

The Fear is that homeowners and property owners start to believe that since there hasn’t been a major flood in New Orleans since 2005, people think they are safe and drop their coverage. On top of that, newly drawn flood maps are more political than the real risk that has removed structures and a large swath of the city from the flood zones that require coverage.

However, as New Orleans, which is 50 percent under the sea level, is dropping its coverage, Louisiana is seeing a trend in the other direction, and there has been an 8.6 upswing in other parishes getting coverage.

How much does flood insurance cost in New Orleans?

The average price per NFIP in Louisiana is $726, though the amount you will pay really depends on where your property is located. We Flood Nerds see prices from $650 to $3,500 a year. However, most of our clients are paying in the realm of $500 – $1,500. This is because we have many markets and keep shopping until we find what we think is a good price for our clients.

Louisiana flood insurance rate maps

Many Louisiana residents who had the NFIP heavily subsidized policy called the preferred risk flood policies (PRP) will start to see the policy increase year over year until the policies reach what the NFIP calls the full risk rates. This is because of the reform of the NFIP rating called Risk Rating 2.0. They removed the PRP.

Flood Insurance Options in Louisiana

Most insurance agents in Louisiana can sell you flood insurance. The real question is, do they have the core understanding of flood insurance? Do they know how to get the best premium on government policy? Do they have over 1500+ flood insurance policies? Do they have access to Louisiana’s many private flood insurance markets that the Flood Nerds do?

The answer to that last question is likely NO. We have spent the past 7 years building solid relationships with our underwriters and studying policies to ensure that the coverage is great and the price is better when we offer a flood policy.

Most agents in Louisiana are home and auto experts. We Flood Nerds only write flood insurance. In addition, most homeowners, real estate agents, and lenders even know there are many options for flood insurance in Louisiana flood insurance.

Fema flood insurance Louisiana

Fema flood insurance isn’t technically correct. FEMA oversees the NFIP, which is how you can access the government flood policy. The Flood Nerds shop both the private flood insurance markets and the NfIp to ensure we have all bases covered. We use the NFIP as our base and then look to see if we can beat it with the private flood insurance markets.

True private flood Insurance in Louisiana

Louisiana isn’t stuck with the NFIp. There is full private flood insurance in Louisiana, and you can only get access to some of these markets with the Flood Nerds. We can even tap into the Lloyds of London flood insurance market.

Let a Flood Nerd shop and get you flood insurance in New Orleans.