Over the past year, we saw how many storms devastated many parts of the country, flooding homes and businesses, destroying roads, and ruining many lives.
From those storms, we received many calls about how insurance will respond to help charter schools recover from the tragedies. So with that in mind, we want to share some insight into how a property insurance policy responds to a water damage claim and where flood coverage comes into play.
How your charter school’s insurance policy will respond to water damage claims depends on how the water entered your charter school. And while every charter school’s property insurance policy differs, basic features are common to all property policies.
WATER DAMAGE
A charter school’s property policy doesn’t cover flood damage, but it does cover many types of water damage to your school.
For insurance purposes, water damage is considered to occur when water damages your school before the water comes in contact with the ground.
Your property policy would cover the following scenarios as they would be considered water damage:
- A hailstorm smashes your window, permitting hail and rain access into your school.
- Heavy rain soaks through the roof, allowing water to drip through your ceiling.
- A broken water pipe spews water into your school.
FLOOD INSURANCE
As the name implies, a standard flood insurance policy, which the National Flood Insurance Program writes, provides coverage up to the policy limit for damage caused by flood. The dictionary defines “flood” as the rising and overflowing of a body of water onto normally dry land.
For insurance purposes, the word “rising” in this definition is the key to distinguishing flood damage from water damage. Generally, damage caused by water on the ground at some point before damaging your school is considered flood damage. A handful of examples of flood damage include:
- A nearby river overflows its banks and washes into your school.
- Heavy rain seeps into your school because the soil can’t absorb the water quickly enough.
- A heavy rain or flash flood causes the hill behind your school to collapse into a mud slide that oozes into your building.
Flood damage to your home can be insured only with a flood insurance policy — no other insurance will cover flood damage.
FINAL NOTE
If a flood or property insurance policy does not cover a water-related claim, losses from theft, fire, or explosion resulting from water damage are covered.
For example, if a nearby creek overflows and floods your school, and looters steal some of your furnishings after you evacuate, the theft would be covered by your property policy because it is a direct result of the water damage. However, the flood damage would be covered only if you have flood insurance.
We hope this provides insight into how flood and property insurance will respond to water damage claims.
If you have any questions at all, or if you would like to submit a claim, please feel free to give our office a call.