Stunning stat shows how few Helene victims had flood insurance in Appalachia

Less than 1% of family homes in the areas most heavily impacted by Hurricane Helene have flood insurance, according to a new report from Reuters.

Flood insurance in the U.S. is primarily provided through the National Flood Insurance Program, not by private companies. The program was designed to cover coastal flooding, however, and it does not apply to most areas in Appalachia that were devastated by Helene. As a result, just 1 in 200 affected homes are covered by the program.

The NFIP was designed to cover areas threatened with flooding by rising water levels, but Helene’s inland devastation came instead from rainfall. The storm dropped over 14 inches of rain over the course of three days, flooding creeks and causing mudslides throughout the mountainous terrain.

Delmus Williams, a survivor from the storm, told Fox News on Wednesday that the water rose four feet inside his home in just a matter of minutes. He and his family were ultimately rescued in canoes.

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“My wife and my granddaughter had to be rescued from the back of the house,” he recalled. “There was a lady next to us by herself, and she was standing at the back door. I was trying to tell her there’s help on the way. They wouldn’t let me go over there because the water was so deep.”

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“As bad as it was for us, I know there’s other people that are even worse (off) and … we had a neighbor get killed in her house,” Williams added. “So, we’re just thankful we are all alive.” 

Dozens of volunteers from Samaritan’s Purse helped the Williams family gut the remains of their home this week.

“God is good and, you know, we’re not hurt, but it’s just going to be a long, long road back if we can build it back,” Williams said.

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A preliminary estimate by Moody’s Analytics says the fallout from Helene could carry an economic cost in the tens of billions of dollars.

At least 106 people have been confirmed dead across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee after Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane late last week.

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The preliminary analysis estimated that Hurricane Helene caused property damage in the range of $15 billion to $26 billion, though it noted there was more uncertainty in the property damage estimate. Economic disruptions caused by school and office closures were estimated as costing $5 billion to $8 billion in lost output. That brings the total preliminary cost estimate to a range of $20 billion to $34 billion.

Reuters contributed to this report.