Mississippi: New Federal Flood Insurance Risk Rating 2.0

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is rolling out changes when it comes to flood insurance rates across all states in the country. Today, we will unpack these changes coming to Mississippi and how they can impact your flood insurance in the future.

Mississippi has had a very long history of flooding that even up to this date, some people are afraid that history might repeat itself with these devastating floods from way back. With climate change only causing more devastating floods across the U.S. and the Magnolia State itself, we want to make sure that everyone is ready for these possible events especially now that we're officially diving into the hurricane season.

For this one, we want to cover the upcoming changes to federal flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), what are staying, and what are changing with flood insurance, rates, and premiums once the Risk Rating 2.0 kicks in.

The Risk Rating 2.0 update is expected to fully roll out on October 1st.

The NFIP 2.0

The Risk Rating 2.0, or commonly known as NFIP 2.0 as well, is more of a move of equity. This update on the federal flood insurance program itself will allow you to no longer pay more than your fair share when it comes to premiums as this would now be based on the value of your property or home starting this October. 

When it comes to the rate changes happening across the country, you're going to see these colors in ranges which represent these changes with flood insurance rates from FEMA. Now, each of these colors represents the good, the bad, and the ugly changes coming to each state.

The Good

First, it's important to note that there will be good changes coming to Mississippi with this update. Although it may be significantly lower compared to other states, a lot of people will still experience this green slice.

16% or 10,047 policies from FEMA will get an immediate decrease on their flood insurance rates by more than $100 (>$1200 per year). This can really help if you're currently paying expensive federal flood insurance premiums or if your property is very close to any of the numerous lakes within the state or the Mississippi River itself.

The Bad

Now, let's talk about the biggest slice with this change coming to Mississippi flood insurance: the blue slice or bad change as we'd call it. This is because this slice represents the start of getting an increase for your flood insurance rates with your NFIP policy.

The increase ranges from $0 to $10 per month ($0 - $120 per year). It will impact a whopping 74% or 44,643 of the active federal flood insurance policies in the state. This means that you might not get any change or increase on your rates with that $0 or you might start paying for that $10 extra starting this October.

The Ugly

Last but not the least, we have some significant ugly changes coming to residents of the Magnolia State which we'll show as the pink and grey slices. Now, we call this an ugly change because of the significant increase it will bring to those included in these portions.

The pink slice will cover 6% or 3,912 active FEMA policies in the state. Same with the previous one, this also deals with an increase in rates, but this time around it's going to range from $10 to $20 per month ($120 - $240 per year). 

On the other hand, we have the uglier change from the grey slice. This is expected to affect 4% or 2,716 policies in Mississippi. We deem this an uglier change because the increase for these people will be more than $20 per month (>$240 per year). This simply means the people in that 4%, the lowest increase is at $20 so you may start seeing $100 or even more flood insurance rate increase with this slice.

You can see a full graph of these changes below:

When Will It Happen?

Now, the date when you can adopt this program really depends if you're doing a renewal or if it's a new business policy. You see, you can expect these changes to start on October 1st and you're going to adapt to these rate changes if you're buying flood insurance from FEMA on or after that date. 

On the other hand, if you're doing a renewal with FEMA after that date then you don't have to take in these new rate changes until April 1st, 2022.

So, you want to be very ready for this. We've been talking about this since last year since basically the NFIP is already 30 years old already and is in need of this change. 

If you have questions on these upcoming changes, what are your flood insurance options in Mississippi, or anything about flood, reach out to us through the links below. You can also watch this on our YouTube channel.

Remember, we have an educational background in flood mitigation and we want to help you understand flood risks through education and awareness in flood insurance and preparedness.