Water fills a street in Green Bay on September 11, 2019. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Seeing so many flood-ravaged homes in Milwaukee after this weekend’s storms may have you wondering how home insurance works for this type of weather event.
Unfortunately, most base home insurance policies don’t cover flood damage.
“It can be financially catastrophic if you don’t have the right coverage. I mean, it can financially hurt someone if they don’t have the proper coverage,” Joe Havel of American Family Insurance said.
Havel said if you want to be covered in case of a flood, that generally means getting separate coverage. However, a lot of people don’t think about having flood insurance until it’s too late.
“My piece of advice for a homeowner would be just reach out to your agent and have that conversation with them, because you always want to have that proactive conversation — not the reactive of, ‘What do I have? What don’t I have?'” Havel said.
Generally, homeowners only add on flood insurance if it’s required by a bank or mortgage company. So while it might be an afterthought, Havel said in some cases, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Green Bay and Northeast Wisconsin have had their own share of flooding events.
Near the East River off of East Mason Street is one of the flooding hot spots in Green Bay. The city’s public works department said when a high-water event happens, they’re prepared — but it’s all hands on deck.
“Everybody does what they need to do to take care of the city. That’s what we do in [Department of Public Works]. We’re a public service agency,” Green Bay Public Works Operations Division Director Chris Pirlot said.
Pirlot said in the event of a flood, the city is as prepared as possible. While Green Bay is an old city, he said the infrastructure is built to handle heavy rainfalls.
To prepare, the city gets information from the National Weather Service. They then use that info to prep staff, get equipment ready and most importantly, ensure drains are clear both inside and out, knowing what the capacity of the storm sewer system is.
“Storm sewers, in a perfect world, should not have debris in them, should not have sediment. You want them to be open and clear and be able to flow as much water as possible,” Pirlot said.
While what happened in Milwaukee over the weekend could happen anywhere, doing the small things can be a big help. Pirlot stresses people help keep the road gutters clean so water doesn’t back up.
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