A 1,000-year rain event that brought 10 or more inches of rainfall to parts of North Texas early this week has led to roughly 3,500 property claims, 1,300 auto claims and less than 20 flood claims through the National Flood Insurance Program, according to the Insurance Council of Texas.
The heavy rains Sunday night into mid-day Monday were the second-wettest 24-hour period in Dallas-Forth Worth on record. The official tally at Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport reported 9.19 inches, which trails only September 4-5, 1932, when 9.57 inches fell on the region.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott cited “unprecedented flooding” in declaring a disaster declaration Tuesday for 23 continues impacted by the storm.
The lack of flood claims resulting from the storm reflect scarcity of flood insurance policies in the Dallas-Forth Worth region.
“While we communicate that a separate flood insurance policy is needed for an event like this, many in our area do not carry flood insurance since so much of this area is not in a flood zone,” said Rustin Goodgion, partner and risk advisor with Patterson & Associates Insurance Agency, Inc.
Goodgion added, “I do not think this event will prompt a shift of consumers choosing to carry flood insurance.”
Though the storm grabbed national headlines as a 1,000-year rain event — a storm with a 0.1 percent likelihood of occurring — Goodgion said the rain and subsequent flash flooding was somewhat common for Dallas-Forth Worth.
“We’ve had several storms over the past decade that has caused flooding in certain areas of our region,” Goodgion said. “Three years ago, there was flash flooding that caused an entire level of a parking garage to be underwater at Love Field Airport. This event made the news in our local area with a question from the media asking if the airport was liable for the damages to the vehicles since so many people were affected.”
Lucas Boyd, partner and president with Boyd, Shackelford, Barnett and Dixon, said this week’s storm likely won’t spur homeowners to consider flood insurance.
“It should, but in my experience, people view catastrophic events as anomalies,”said Boyd. “So I don’t think it will affect buying patterns too much, but we’ll have a few, usually those who have experienced a loss.”
Boyd said his agency has seen auto claims where customers’ vehicles were damaged due to water intrusion but otherwise hasn’t been impacted.
Troy Koonsman, director of claims operations for Higginbotham, said the Fort Worth-based agency hasn’t experienced a large number of claims, in part because the storm was pocketed in nature. Rainfall in the area varied drastically, with central and eastern Dallas experiencing the worst of it.
“The storm losses are very nominal at this point,” said Koonsman.
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