Flood lessons Pt 4 – Insurance

The damage caused by the floods associated with tropical storm Nicole has made us think again about the need for insurance.  A recent survey by the Insurance association has revealed that less than 20 percent of houses are insured.  For most persons the purchase of a house is the biggest investment that they will make in their lives.  Most people can not afford to replace their house if they were to lose it but yet they are willing to take the risk.  With the change in weather patterns disasters are happening much more frequently and thus the need for insurance increases.  Even if one doesn’t lose their house to a flood the home could become submerged in water and all of the contents could be destroyed.  Having insurance is a good safeguard for protecting your investment.  It seems as if every person who relates a story of losing their house says that it was uninsured.  Insurance can be useful in helping to get us back on our feet in our time of distress.

Another point to consider is that during the times of natural disasters there is often a problem with rioting and looting.  No business should find itself in a situation where its inventory has been stolen and there is no insurance in place.  Yet once again we have heard the stories of stores being robbed during the storm and the business was not insured. A business may not be able to survive if it suffers a major robbery as the owners most times do not have the cash to get up and running again.

One of the hardest hit areas was agriculture and many farmers related their tales of losing significant sums of money as a result of destruction to their crops.  The minister of agriculture, Mr. Christopher Tufton was lamenting the fact that many farmers who need assistance did not contribute to the insurance scheme that was set up to deal with disasters.  Farming can be a very cruel business and it only takes one event to completely wipe out the business.  For agriculture insurance is no longer an option it is a necessity especially as it takes considerable time for a new crop to be ready for harvesting.  We have also seen cases where the farmers did not suffer any damage to their crops but because the roads are impassable they are unable to transport them to market.  In additions businesses have had to close during and after the storm due to flooding.  Insurance is also available to cover these contingencies and one should carefully consider buying it for such emergencies.

The harsh reality is that more disasters will come and those that fail to insure will be sure to fail, I pray that you will not let it happen to you.