Death toll of Hurricane Harvey over 60

The death toll in the catastrophic hurricane Harvey that lashed through the U.S. state of Texas has increased to 46, the media reported.

The White House’s request for almost $8 billion in emergency storm aid – made in a letter late Friday to House Speaker Paul Ryan – was $2 billion more than what the White House was expected to request, suggesting a rapid rise in needed funding as the scale of the disaster becomes clear.

The South Florida Water Management District has begun lowering water levels in the canals, moving as much water as possible in preparation for the storm, but with the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) set to expire in less than a month, Florida could be in a bad situation.

And the cost of repairs could fall on consumers.

FEMA is also directing NFIP insurance providers to extend the grace period for payment of NFIP flood insurance policy renewal premiums to 120 days. Some statistics from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) might change your mind. Flood insurance is a separate policy. An estimated 156,000 dwellings were damaged by flooding in Harris County, or more than 10 percent of all structures in the county database, according to the flood control district for the county, which includes Houston.

Analysis carried out by the University of Wisconsin’s Space Science and Engineering Center and reported by the Washington Post suggested that Harvey was a one-in-1,000 year event which has no precedent in modern observations.

The order would have changed the way that developers build around flood plains and prevented them from using imperfect flood maps to consider lines at the edges of flood plains as definite and instead as a place of caution, expanding the areas near flood plains where building should not occur. And that highlights a problem – flood risk is so high that flood insurance is too expensive for many insurers to sell.

“The premiums and all the rules are calculated based on flood maps that are typically 3-10 years old and which do not reflect climate change, so the flood risk is growing every year and the area that will be flooded is growing every year. What’s happening with Hurricane Harvey is making everybody sit up and question: ‘Should I get (flood insurance)?’ I’d say, you need to get a quote and find out what it would cost you”.

The Category 5 hurricane, which has hit the Caribbean and is heading to Florida, is already impacting the insurance sector. They’ll either make your policy effective after 30 days, or they’ll wait for the storm to pass to quote.

Here’s what small businesses need to know about commercial flood insurance.

Residents can stay informed during severe weather and disasters by signing up to receive emergency telephone or email notifications from Volusia County Emergency Management.