Mapping

A few days ago, I received a notice from my mortgage company advising me that I was in a high-risk zone and needed to purchase flood insurance. You know, if I need to I will, but I'm trying to figure out why this has never come up before -- in the nearly nine years I've lived here! My house hasn't moved from where it's been, and I know from my time at FEMA that, while floodplains do shift, it isn't usually a fast or abrupt process. And while I do live close to the ocean -- only three miles -- I am west of the intracoastal and in a Zone 4 area (at least I think that's what it's called). Anyway, my neighborhood wouldn't be evacuated due to a hurricane unless it was a Category 4 storm. Jacksonville hasn't had one of those since, well, ever. Dora was the closest, both in proximity and strength, in 1964. That doesn't mean it wouldn't happen, only that it hasn't.

I was talking to my son about this new requirement earlier tonight, and he said that it seems like my mortgage company screwed up. (He worked in the mortgage industry for about ten years.) Apparently there is a page I should have signed with my other deed and loan papers that says I will purchase flood insurance; generally, if it's not there, I don't need the insurance. I wonder what would have happened if my house had been damaged in a flood between the time I bought it and now. Would it have been my problem or the mortgage company's problem? I'm glad I didn't find out.