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July and August are monsoon season in nearby Arizona, where the warm, moist air from the Gulf of California make their way up into the Desert Southwest and bring torrential rains. At times, those monsoonal formations make their way into the Las Vegas Valley, and that can lead to heavy rainfall, high winds and flash flooding. Las Vegas residents and visitors well-remember the July 2013 flash flood that swept through the Las Vegas Strip and caused a great deal of damage. But worse floods have occurred, which spurred recent flood drainage projects to divert flash flood waters. Still, having flood insurance for homes is an important concern for homeowners despite being located in the Mojave Desert.

Spring Mountains, Rocky Terrain Promote Flash Flooding

The high elevation of the Spring Mountains and Mt. Charleston, which rises to more than 11,900 feet, makes it difficult for rain clouds to pass over without spilling their contents. The steep, rocky terrain along the eastern slope of the Spring Mountains is incapable of absorbing much if any rain water, so what little falls there eventually works its way into nearby Las Vegas. If there is an inch or more of rain that falls in one or two hours, significant flash flooding can occur. And on the rare occasions when there is a heavy downpour anywhere in the vicinity, the water makes its way though Las Vegas until eventually winding up in Lake Mead and the Colorado River on its way to the Gulf of California.

Many Get Coverage from National Flood Insurance Program

Most homeowners insurance policies do not provide coverage for external flooding unless added as an endorsement for an additional monthly premium. But most homes are insured through the National Flood Insurance Program, which provides up to $250,000 in external flood insurance coverage for varying rates. Speaking with your insurance agent can help to affirm what kind of flood insurance you might have on your home and whether or not it would be a good idea to buy external flood insurance protection.

Have you or any of your neighbors every suffered damages from external flooding?

Originally posted 2014-06-15 22:36:55.

Term life insurance is what many insurance experts consider to be the purest form of life insurance. The reason is because it truly does provide life insurance protection instead of making the policyholder pay premiums that provide the eventual cash benefit. Most term life policies also expire with no death benefit paid. That happens because the insured individual almost always outlives the term for which the life insurance policy provides financial protection. With term life, policyholders don’t have to undergo health exams or pay high premiums like whole life insurance plans require.

Actuarial Tables Determine Term Life Rates

Term life is much easier for insurers to underwrite than whole life insurance. Those looking to buy term life coverage need to just give their basic personal and health information, which insurers then use to compare to actuarial tables and determine the amount of the premium needed for coverage. Most term life insurance plans do not require any kind of health exam. Many also can be converted to whole life insurance if the policyholder so desires, but the premium will rise. Most term life insurance policies also have guaranteed renewals so they can be extended when a term expires.

Most Insurance Parties Outlive Policies

Term life insurance works best for helping to ensure home mortgages can be paid off if the main breadwinner should suddenly die. Most families in the United States do not have enough life insurance to prevent a sudden drop in a family’s standard of living if the head of household dies, and that means a lot of home mortgages likely won’t be paid off due to a lack of life insurance coverage. Term life insurance offers many affordable options to prevents such things from happening, and a decreasing term life insurance policy is ideal to protect family homes and other financial interests.

Have you considered buying life insurance to protect your family?

Most homeowners insurance policies do not give homes the full protection they need from various perils. While all homeowners insurance policies provide coverage for losses caused by fires, lightning, internal flooding and other possible perils, many other perils often times are not covered. A basic homeowners insurance policy only provides coverage for 11 standard perils with only limited protection for personal belongings. But homes in many areas of Nevada as well as other states can have more common localized perils. Kansas is famous for its windstorms, New Orleans for its catastrophic flood vulnerability and California for its earthquakes, for example. That means many homeowners will need specialized coverage for their homes and valuables.

Named-Perils and Open-Perils Policies

Homeowners insurance policies generally protect homes based on one of two means. The most common is a named-perils policy that specifically lists those potential hazards for which the policyholder will be indemnified. They include internal flooding, fire, lightning, power outages, vandalism, theft, falling objects and other common perils. Some homeowners insurance policies will name much more than 11 perils, and anything other than those perils that specifically are listed will not be covered. An open perils policy is different. With an open perils policy, only those perils that are excluded are listed, such as earthquakes, external flooding and other threats that are not insured against.

Commonly Excluded Perils that Nevadans Might Need

External flooding is one of the most common exclusions from coverage and requires either a separate flood insurance policy or a special rider to additional flood insurance protection. Earthquake insurance is another peril that most policies exclude but that could come in handy for Nevada residents. Nevada is among the nation’s most active states for seismic activity, but not nearly to the extent of nearby California. But homeowners might benefit from buying an earthquake insurance rider to protect against potential foundations cracking, damaged walls and other possible defects caused by Earth tremors. Flash flooding also is a common peril for which additional insurance coverage can be bought through the National Flood Insurance Program.

Does your home have any additional insurance riders protecting it?

When the summer monsoon season moves into Arizona, it many times can find its way over into the Las Vegas Valley, which in fact is a basin. The distinction is meaningless to most people, but a valley has numerous outlets for water runoff. A basin does not. The only place water has to go when it falls anywhere in the greater Las Vegas area ultimately is the Colorado River. That means flash flooding is a serious concern for many people and especially those who do not have the right kinds of insurance coverage.

External Flooding Not Covered by Homeowners Policies

Homeowners insurance will protect against a lot of perils, but external flooding isn’t one of them. If it comes through the door or windows, there better be flood insurance to cover it. A homeowners insurance policy generally just has insurance protection for internal flooding, as might happen when a water heater ruptures and no one is around to shut off the water supply. Because internal flooding mostly is under the control of homeowners, insurers can better assess risks and underwrite coverage. But when the flooding is external, the cause is Mother Nature most of the time, and no one controls Mother Nature.

Mud Slides Also Need Protection

As many homeowners near Mt. Charleston learned last year, mud slides and landslides can be very destructive and excluded without an additional insurance endorsement on a homeowners policy. With the many steep hills and mountains in the area and the potential for wildfires as well as flash flooding, mudslides and landslides can be a real danger to local homes and require additional coverage. Standard homeowners insurance for the most part covers everything from the walls on in for a home and some external structures. When it comes to Mother Nature, a lot of her perils need special protection.

Does your homeowners insurance protect against external flooding and land movement?

Nevada is one of the most active states for earthquakes, but most of them occur out in wilderness areas and well away from population centers. Yet, an earthquake is something that Las Vegas residents experience on a regular basis on a very subtle level. Most people don’t realize it when tremors travel through the greater Las Vegas area, but they do occur. Scientists say a large earthquake could strike the area someday, and people need to have the right insurance protection in place.

Most Don’t Carry Earthquake Coverage

There are no known instances of destructive earthquakes striking Las Vegas, partly because the area until only recently was a sparsely populated desert area. But the massive population growth during the past 70 years has transformed the area and exposed far more people and properties to possible earthquake damage. Even if a big one does not strike anytime soon, one of many tremors might result in property damage that might not be covered by standard homeowners insurance policies. Cracked foundations and damaged walls are the most common types of damages from even moderate earthquake tremors, and most homes would not be protected if an earthquake or at least a tremor were determined to be the cause of the damage.

Earthquake Policies Are Affordable

Because they rarely strike and most damages are repairable, the cost of additional earthquake insurance protection is worth the nominal cost. Most insurers realize cracked foundations are the worst they mostly will need to deal with, and that is something they can indemnify while spreading out the cost of the risk among many other policyholders in the area. That makes earthquake insurance one of the more useful and most neglected types of homeowners insurance coverage people could use but do not have in most cases.

Have you ever felt a tremor while in Las Vegas?