Storage and Flooding: What to Know

The risks of storage facility flooding has increased in recent years as our climate changes and extreme weather becomes more of a norm vs a rare event. Heavy rainfall, hurricanes and storm surges all pose a risk to damaging storage units and your belongings.

Even if you have a homeowner's policy or personal property coverage that covers off-premises personal property, it’s likely, your insurance does not cover damage from flooding. Rather, covered perils typically include fire, lightning, theft and vandalism. Unfortunately, most homeowners and renters policies provide coverage for items stored away from your home, but most won't cover flood damage.

A few key questions to ask yourself or the Storage Facility before deciding where to lock-up your belonging are the following:

1 - Has your storage facility ever flooded? Hopefully you’ll get an honest answer here, and if their staff seem transparent ask how many times the property has flooded and when the last incident was.

2 - Is the Storage Facility in the 100-year or 500-year flood plain? If unable to get an answer directly from the facility or if you have lingering doubt finding out if the property is in the flood plain is a good clue to risk of flooding.

3 - On Google Maps, is the Storage Facility located in proximity to a river or large body of water? Since it might be hard to find the 100-year or 500-year flood maps, a final quick and easy assessment would be pulling up Google Maps for a look at where the facility sits relative to bodies of water, particularly rivers where banks are more frequently breaching from extreme weather events in recent years.