20 Year Minnesota Floodplain: What Is It?

If you have ever been required to get flood insurance in Minnesota then you have probably received a letter that states your are in the special flood hazard area or the 100 year flood zone.

In these areas if you carry a mortgage then you are required to carry flood insurance. So what about the floods and the risk in Minnesota?

We want to look at that little bit today. You can also checkout the podcast on it below.

So lets look at historic floods if you live near the major rivers in Minnesota. If you aren't familiar we are talking about the Mississippi River, Saint Lawrence River, and the Red River North.

Living in this area your more than likely have experienced some flooding. You may have heard that was a 20 year flood, 100 year flood, or 500 year flood.

What does this all mean?

Well its all a probability it doesn't mean that it only happens every 500, 100, or 20 years.

What it means for your flood risk is while a 20 year flood may occur more often a 500 year flood could be more severe.

So how does it impact your flood insurance in Minnesota?

Well if you have a National Flood Insurance Program policy you probably don't see much impact at all.

However on the private flood insurance it could be totally different.

Private flood insurance carriers in Minnesota use many different factors to rate a risk. One of these factors might be whether a property is in a floodway or a 20 year flood plain. They may see these things as higher chances of flood damage occurring.

A week doesn't go by where we don't see someone get declined for flood insurance in the Minnesota area for these reasons.

So if you are looking at flood insurance options and you have been declined its important to know that you have options. Just because one company declines you doesn't mean another one will.

If you have further questions about these areas in Minnesota you can check out our daily flood education videos on our YouTube Channel or Facebook page Flood Insurance Guru.

Remember we have an educational background in flood mitigation which means we are here to help you understand your flood risks, flood insurance, and mitigating your property against flooding.