Mitigation Activities At Home:

Besides purchasing flood insurance, you can strengthen these areas in your home: main breaker, exterior walls, and water tank. Other mitigation activities include clearing debris from your gutters and storm drain.

Flood Insurance Purchase flood insurance to cover the value of your home and/or its contents. Whether you live in a flood zone or not, you can purchase flood insurance. If you have a flood insurance policy, you can be reimbursed for all your covered losses, even if a disaster is not Federally declared. In contrast, Federal disaster assistance is often a loan - repayable if full - with interest! An average policy from the National Flood Insurance Program costs about $300 per year for $100,000 of coverage in high-risk areas. In low and moderate-risk areas,the cost is about $100 a year. Paying back a $50,000 disaster home loan will cost an average of #300 a month - for an average repayment of 20 years! Also, as many as 25% of claims comes from non-high-risk areas.

In addition, rain damage (e.g., during a tropical storm) would be covered under flood insurance and not homeowners or hurricane insurance. To learn more about insurance, call FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program at 1-888-CALL-FLOOD, contact your local insurance agent, or click here.

Main Breaker Elevate the main breaker or fuse box and the utility meters above the anticipated flood level in your home or business, so that flood water won't damage your utilities. Ask Hawaii County or click here for additional information.

Exterior Walls Add a waterproof veneer to the exterior walls and seal all openings, including doors, to prevent the entry of water. Check with your local home improvement store or click here for additional information.

Water Tank Anchor your water tank. An unanchored tank outside your house can be driven into your walls, and it can be swept downstream, where it can damage other houses. Check with your local home improvement store or click here for additional information.

Clear Debris Clean and maintain storm drains and gutters and remove debris from your property to allow free flow of potential flood water. Check with your local home improvement store or click here.