As Texans start to rebuild after the floods, many face the reality of being uninsured

Robin Bates isn't quite sure what the future looks like.

On Wednesday, she watched volunteers use chain saws to break up debris from recent flooding. They carried away a car tire. They loaded wheelbarrows with brush and tree trunks, navigating it around an overturned treadmill in Bates' front yard.

Two weeks ago, floodwaters from a nearby creek tore her home in northwestern Travis County from its base. Bates is now one of hundreds of people in Texas attempting to clean up and rebuild after devastating July Fourth weekend floods killed at least 130 people.

But where will the money to restore these homes come from? Bates and many of her neighbors don't have flood insurance.

As Texans begin to rebuild, many will come up against the reality that few funds are available to help them. Just 7% of homeowners in Texas have flood insurance through the federal government, which runs the biggest flood insurance program in the country. That percentage drops to 2% when you move inland, to areas like Travis and Kerr counties, some of the hardest hit by recent floods.

Federal data shows the percentage of homeowners with flood insurance in the state declined over the past year.

"It's clearly the largest insurance gap in the country," said Mark Friedlander, director of media relations for the nonprofit Insurance Information Institute.

Homeowner's insurance covers damage from disasters such as tornadoes and hail. But these policies don't cover flood damage.

"If you don't have flood insurance and your house or anything in it is damaged by a flood, your homeowner's insurance will not cover it," said Maddie Sloan, director of the Disaster Recovery and Fair Housing Project at the nonprofit Texas Appleseed. "You have to have flood insurance."

To help provide flood insurance for homeowners, the federal government created a national program in the 1960s called the National Flood Insurance Program. Unlike homeowner's insurance policies, which are sold by private companies, the vast majority of homeowners who have flood insurance have government-backed policies, Friedlander said.

But not everyone has to have it. Typically, mortgage companies require homeowners who live in an area with a high risk of flooding to buy flood insurance. Otherwise, many choose to go without because they don't realize their home insurance doesn't cover it or because they don't want to stomach the cost.

Richard Johnson said homeowners usually get flood insurance after a big natural disaster, such as Hurricane Harvey. But as years go by, and their homes don't flood, they let the policies lapse.

"I always call it 'catastrophe amnesia,'" Johnson, director of communications at the Insurance Council of Texas, said.

In the past year, roughly 39,000 homeowners in the state canceled or let their flood insurance policies expire, according to federal data. Texas was one of the states with the biggest drop off in people with flood insurance.

Yolanda Chavira said she had paid off the loan on her home just outside Leander, but she didn't have flood insurance because it was too expensive. According to federal data, the median cost of flood insurance in Texas in 2023 was $779 a year.

Even if Chavira could afford it, she wasn't required to have it. The nearly 70-year-old, who lived with her husband and son, said she didn't live in a flood zone.

Still, the home flooded.

In the middle of the night on July 5, Chavira said, water poured into her three-bedroom home from a nearby creek. The water reached just below her knee. The first floor is now waterlogged and moldy. She hasn't stayed in the house since the flooding.

"It stinks in there," Chavira said. "I can't breathe."

Flood insurance has its limitations. Government-backed policies cap the amount a homeowner can receive to repair and rebuild their home at $250,000. An analysis of federal data shows that in 2017, Texas residents received an average of about $117,000.

Without a payout from insurance, Chavira and her family will have to rely on private donations and grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. Individuals can receive up to $87,200 from the agency to help pay for hotels, food, and cleaning up and rebuilding their homes.

But that amounts to mere pennies in a county where the average home costs half a million dollars.

"Even if folks get the maximum amount of FEMA assistance, that is not going to rebuild the house," Sloan said. "And people rarely get the maximum amount."

According to a report from the Government Accountability Office, the average payout from FEMA to individuals between 2016 and 2018 was just $4,200. After Hurricane Beryl hit Houston last year, residents received an average of $5,400 from FEMA to help with housing, according to an analysis by Sloan's organization.

Residents can also get low-interest loans, but some might not be able to pay them back, Sloan said.

The state could make more money available to those impacted by the floods. Lawmakers meet next week for a special legislative session where, in addition to asking lawmakers to improve the state's warning system, Gov. Greg Abbott has asked them to create a flood relief fund.

But it's unclear how this money, if approved, would be used and how much individuals might be eligible for.

With so few funds available for people to rebuild, Sloan said some people might end up leaving their homes and towns entirely. Others may attempt to live in heavily damaged homes.

For now, Chavira is living in a small back house on her 5-acre property. But it doesn't have a bathroom or shower, she said. She's been going every day to a local church to get tacos and to add her name to any list for financial help.

"We don't have a home," Chavira said, wiping away tears. "Our home is standing, but it's damaged. It's unlivable."