There was no flood of insurance after the nor’easter

Residents can expect little aid for their recently inundated basements

By: Lauren Otis
   While the good news is that most basements flooded in the nor’easter storm which hit the region early last week have likely dried out by now, the bad news is residents will probably recoup very little from their insurance policies.
   Over 1,800 Mercer County residences were damaged or otherwise affected by the torrential rains, with damage costs estimated at $6.5 million countywide, according to statistics compiled by the Mercer County executive’s office. Most of the damage came from flooded basements, said Peter Daly, Mercer County deputy director of communications.
   "Flooding is never covered under a homeowner’s policy, never, never, never," said Deborah Stavish, with the Maclean Agency in Princeton.
   Plenty of people were calling the insurance agency about their flooded basements and related losses, Ms. Stavish said, but for the most part the cost of getting the basements cleaned out and dry or losses to contents are not covered unless the homeowner purchased separate flood insurance.
   If homeowners have a sump pump in their basement which may have been overwhelmed in the flood, and they carried a sump pump endorsement on their homeowner’s policy, then they might be insured for an amount around $5,000, Ms. Stavish said. Often, however, when taking out their homeowner’s policies, people don’t buy the separate sump pump endorsement because they feel the extra expense is impractical, she said.
   Special flood insurance is also expensive, but "we always recommend to everyone to get flood insurance," even if they don’t live in a flood plain where it is required, "because we know how the weather has been in recent years," Ms. Stavish said.
   Flood insurance may be expensive but not having it and being flooded is more expensive, she noted.
   Ms. Stavish did say that motorists whose cars were stranded in rising flood waters were likely to be able to collect from their auto insurer for their losses.
   Laura Gerstner of GR Murray Insurance in Princeton said "we are getting a lot of calls," after the storm. For the most part flood losses are not covered by homeowner’s policies, she said, but she encouraged affected residents to check with their insurance agent or carrier nevertheless because individual policies, and loss circumstances, vary and some insurers may provide some coverage, even beyond a sump pump outage.
   Government costs for municipalities across the county as a result of the storm — mostly from personnel and overtime costs from police, fire and emergency response, according to Mr. Daly — were estimated at $1.1 million.
   In Princeton Borough, 93 residences and one business were damaged or affected, at a total loss estimated at $167,000. In Princeton Township 119 homes were damaged at a total estimated loss of $595,000, according to the county. Government costs were $14,000 in the township and $9,570 in the borough.
   In West Windsor 90 residences were damaged or affected at an estimated cost of $270,000. One business was damaged at an estimated cost of $100,000 and West Windsor government costs were estimated by the county at $669,000.