NOVEMBER 2017

Newsletter

A message from Evan:"'NFIP Reform – What’s FairPoliticians have so many competing forces pushing and pulling them in different directions. Outcomesthat seem fair to a portion of constituents will be attacked as unfair by others. What is the fair outcomefor property owners in flood prone communities?

In 2012, Congress enacted the Biggert Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act to more accurately chargeflood insurance premiums based upon risk. Subsidies were removed, premiums skyrocketed andeventually the outcry from policyholders and other stakeholders walked back the reforms. If you don’tcharge the actuarial rate for flood coverage, what are the alternatives? Subsidized rates that will further

From: Dana Anaman <danaan@pianet.org>To: "pdfconvert@pdfconvert.me" <pdfconvert@pdfconvert.me>Subject: November FloodBroker NewsletterDate: Mon, 27 Nov 2017 21:03:59 +0000

add to the debt of the NFIP will likely be the outcome. The private market will continue to pick andchoose the risks that meet their underwriting guidelines.

Politicians will have more cover buoying the NFIP every time the wind blows rather than taking on angryconstituents. In the ideal world the perfect solution could require all property owners to carry some formof flood insurance. An enlarged pool would charge fair premiums for everyone based on their exposure.Adding more properties to the pool would help keep rates down in the most at-risk areas. Propertyowners that had not carried flood coverage in the past would now be better prepared for unforeseenweather events, and we would all join hands across this land and sing Kumbaya.

Will the future of the National Flood Insurance Program be fair? Probably not – but fairness has rarelybeen the driving force of legislation. Why should coming to grips with the NFIP be any different?"

Articles for you from Our Newsfeed

John Oliver and a Talking Seagull ExplainAmerica’s Broken Flood Insurance Program

ABA Banking Journal (blog)

The Insurance Insider

Statistics from FEMA

https://www.fema.gov/flood-insurance-statistics-current-month

Irmageddon: A first-hand account of the devastation in Marathon, Florida from

Hurricane Irma

Musicians Adrienne Zolondick and Kris Estes were on a cross country tour when Hurricane Irmabarreled through their island home in Marathon, Florida. They returned to utter devastation, amassive clean-up, homelessness and a complete rethinking of their income as bars andrestaurants where they normally played also sustained extreme damage from Irma. Out of thethirty-two homes in Adrienne’s neighborhood, seven were habitable after the storm, two arebeing rebuilt, twenty were total losses and three simply disappeared. We were able to chat with Adrienne about her experience with Hurricane Irma, FEMA, floodinsurance and the true meaning of her new song “Keys Strong”. I bought my house December of 2003 and I'm around nine homes in from the ocean. When we got back to thehouse there was this grey mud like clay and seaweed on everything outside and everything below a 2' 7" wallmark in my house. The amount of debris in the driveway made it impossible to park, nor could we even walk backto my house which sits way on the back of my property. Many houses on the end of my street towards the oceanjust disappeared and I imagine a lot of the debris in my yard came from them. We found a tub of someone’spersonal belongings, a kayak, someone’s dock, their fence.... too much to mention. We have beautiful arecapalm trees that line the entire front of my property. Thankfully. I think the palms stopped a lot of the debris frommaking it all the way to my front door. Nevertheless, the amount of stuff that did make its way behind the palmswas staggering.

I am very thankful that I have flood insurance with American Strategic and already received an advance of somefunds to get started with emergency repairs. I was advised to get a public adjuster, so I had someone to battle ifneed be before I even returned to the Keys. Many organizations helped us with the initial clean-up right after thestorm. Kris and I were so fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. We arrived late Monday nightSeptember 25th and since I was approved for a hotel with FEMA, we stayed in a hotel that night. Tuesdaymorning, we were off to locate water stations set up to give away water and ice and made our way to City Hall.While I was inside asking about the water a man named Larry Buck from Ends of the Earth Ministries asked Krisabout our story and he proceeded to follow us home. After seeing our situation, he said he would be back in afew hours and sure enough, he came back with a bobcat and cleared out our entire driveway. About a week laterhe brought back 6 guys from an organization out of NY called TLC, Transformational Life Center, and these guyswere so nice. They went in there and helped pull a lot of furniture out of our house and also cut the drywall andremoved everything to the street. It was surreal. After helping us TLC were on their way to Puerto Rico to helpout. They were all so nice, and I was feeling and still am feeling deep gratitude for all that help. Sometime afterthat an organization from Ft. Lauderdale I believe it was a Mormon church went into everyone's yard up anddown my street and cleaned out all the debris. It was amazing. We really had a lot of help in the first 3 weeks andfeel really blessed and fortunate for it all. We want to get the house done as quickly as possible, so we can have income from the house again. I have asix month forbearance with my mortgage company, which is fantastic. Still owe the money, but it will be tackedonto the back of my loan with interest, but no late fees accrued at least. I just found out today that the claimsadjuster on my flood insurance case cannot even get to my claim for another 3 weeks. In the meanwhile, we areputting fences back up, relocated some areca palm trees so we could move an RV into the yard, got our laundry

room back up and running and took all the cabinets and fixtures out of the house. I am looking into whichelectrician can help us relocate wires so we can do the house right, talking to contractors to find out what theywould charge to get some estimates, getting the mold remediation done.. Today I tried to apply for reemploymentassistance, which they require you to do before you can get unemployment assistance. I get to the place in theapplication where I need to put in employer information and... well, I am self-employed so what do I do here? Iguess I need to go to the FEMA office and ask! Lol! All the while, I am on hold with their 800 number for a goodhour and when I finally get a person on the phone, I lose the call! Lol! There have been a lot of issues with phoneservice dropping calls as well down here. My life has changed a lot since the storm. I am a professional musician and perform and entertain for a living.Many of the places I perform are still not open so I lost a lot of income. I also lost rental income as I rent outrooms in my house. I now live in an RV camper on my property which I actually feel extremely blessed to have.One of my fans/friends lent me $15,000.00 to buy this camper and I am feeling very fortunate to have it eventhough I am still moving into it being such a smaller space than I am used to living in. In a nutshell, my life is verydifferent right now. Instead of playing music, I am thinking about how to put my house back together and whichcontractor would be willing to work with me and let us do some of the work. Lol! My day to day challenges are which person should I call now??? Lol! Should I spend the money on this 3 in 1coffeemaker toaster oven grill combo unit we need in the trailer? Lol! So I buy the unit and call Hammerhead tomake an appointment to get my house tented to get rid of the termites while the house is empty. I think that's agood idea….

You can find Adrienne’s music at https://www.adriennemusic.com/Her new song “Feeling Keys Strong” is featured on Keys Strong, a 2 CD set of 37 songs all about Key West, TheKeys, and "The Keys Lifestyle". The record is $25 and includes FREE shipping! ONLY available atwww.southernmostcoconutcastaways.com. 100% of the $25 goes to The United Way of The Florida Keys"Hurricane Irma Relief Fund" and the 16 LOCAL charities they work with! GIVE THE GIFT OF THE FLORIDAKEYS THIS HOLIDAY SEASON and help out those most affected! All music, graphics, pictures, andflyers/banners AND production costs paid for generously from donations so literally EVERY penny brought in willgo toward help! Order one for you and a bunch for friends, family, neighbors, co-workers!

November’s Marketing Tip from Evan

Many NFIP policyholders have policies that are incorrectly rated. If you are working with a current NFIPpolicyholder, don't forego the opportunity to look at their existing policy declaration. You would think that aquestion as simple as "is this your primary residence" would be answered accurately. That has often not beenthe case. If the policy is marked as non-primary the premium difference can be quite dramatic. A different setof rates and surcharge applies resulting in an artificially inflated policy premium. Nothing like being the heropointing out the error, correcting it and writing not just the flood policy but all the other insurance for thisprospect as well.