FEMA Commercials and Ads To Encourage Americans To Purchase Flood Insurance

A new series of commercials on network and cable television and ads in consumer magazines, sponsored by the National Flood Insurance Program, will remind Americans that almost everyone needs flood insurance.

The advertising effort focuses on the message that floods are occurring more and more frequently and can strike almost anywhere--and that homeowners insurance does not cover flood losses. One version of the television commercial shows a weather expert reminding viewers that no one can outsmart Mother Nature and thousands of people in California and elsewhere recently have learned the bitter lesson that no one is safe from flooding.

The ads are aimed at people who may not recognize their flood risk or understand that the only real protection from this most common of all natural disasters is a separate flood insurance policy underwritten by the federal government. The NFIP makes flood insurance available to property owners in communities that adopt and enforce regulations designed to reduce future flood losses,.

Another commercial features James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), pointing out that changing weather patterns have caused floods in all 50 states in the last few years and it's common sense to protect your future with flood insurance. Witt's message is tied in with FEMA's nationwide effort known as Project Impact: Building a Disaster-Resistant Community.

Although more than four million flood insurance policies are currently in force in more than 18,700 participating communities nationwide, FEMA says only 25 percent of an estimated 11 million households in the floodplain are protected by flood insurance.