Connecticut residents who have flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) might have trouble renewing their policies as a result of the federal shutdown, said Andrew Mais, the state’s Insurance Commissioner. As a result, Mais advises these residents to “consider renewing their policies well before they expire or check the private market.”
“Should anything go wrong during the renewal process, it’s very likely no NFIP support staff are available to address those issues in a timely manner,” said Mais. “It is critical not to let this important property protection lapse.”
Gov. Ned Lamont himself touched on the inability of the state government to guarantee the same level of service from federal agencies throughout the shutdown, in a press conference yesterday.
“I can’t fill in for the federal government if they want to walk away from their responsibilities, if they want to stop answering the phone, I can’t answer all the phones for them,” said Lamont.
The NFIP, which was created in 1968 and has been managed by FEMA ever since, currently provides flood insurance to around 4.7 million policyholders nationwide, and to 31,667 Connecticut policyholders, per FEMA’s latest statistics. The NFIP will not be issuing any new policies until the shutdown ends, making it a non-option for those currently considering a flood insurance plan for their home or business. As a result, Mais encouraged residents and business owners to check with their insurance agents or providers to see if they offer private flood insurance.
While severe floods aren’t as frequent a problem in Connecticut as they are in states such as Louisiana, the prevalence of severe floods in the state is expected to increase as a result of climate change. Last August, a record-breaking thousand-year flood killed two in Oxford, and in 2023, flooding along the Connecticut River damaged around 2,000 acres of farmland. In July, Connecticut’s Emergency Management Director, William Turner, called flooding the state’s biggest emergency risk, and said that flooding has begun to impact areas not traditionally recognized as being high-risk.
“What we’re see more and more is that flooding is happening more often outside of the FEMA designated flood plains, and we’re hearing so often where people have lost their home or had flooded homes, where they didn’t have flood insurance and they didn’t realize they needed it because they weren’t in a flood plain,” said Turner. “We’re really trying to just help people understand not only how to keep yourself prepared and safe, but also protect your investments, protect your property by making sure you have that flood insurance in place.”
Mais recommended residents to visit the Insurance Department’s Consumer Information Center for more information on flood insurance, and to call the department at 860-297-3900 or email it at insurance@ct.gov if they have any questions. Residents can also enter their address into a new risk assessment tool, unveiled by the CID two days ago in collaboration with the First Street Foundation, to evaluate their property’s risk of flood or fire damage.
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