Florida homes face growing flood risk. Why are some protections off-limits?

When a hurricane or tropical storm threatens the coast, residents jump into action installing storm shutters to keep their homes and businesses safe from high winds.

Insurance companies encourage this, offering discounts for properties with storm-proof coverings or those that take the extra financial leap to install permanent protections like impact windows and doors. But the same isn’t true for flooding, a hazard that is growing increasingly common as climate changes ramps up rainfall and raises tides.

In fact, federal regulations and the Florida Building Code bar single family homeowners in flood zones from installing permanent flood barriers on their properties at all. There’s even a risk of losing your flood insurance coverage or getting a claim denied after installing some of these products.

In Florida, where homeowners are increasingly finding floodwaters at their door, the market for these kinds of products — both off the shelf at a home improvement store and custom-built — has exploded. And those customers are running headfirst into what experts say is a legal gray area for flood protections.

“Some communities are trying to put together a permitting process for this. People want to do this, but they need guidance,” said Del Schwalls, a Florida-based floodplain management consultant. “As soon as you get past sandbags the rules get real shades of gray.”

Part of the confusion comes from mixing up the two separate categories of flood protection products: temporary and permanent.

Permanent flood barriers are anything that gets screwed into the wall or permanently attached to a structure. Like hurricane shutters, they require a permit to install, which usually includes an inspector reviewing the work after it’s done and approving it.

For single family homes in flood zones — most of coastal South Florida — you can’t even get a permit to install them.

Flood panels, which are rectangular barriers to keep floodwater out, can be considered a form of “dry floodproofing,” or altering a structure so that water goes around it, not through it. That’s a no-no for the National Flood Insurance Program and the Florida Building Code, because single family homes are not usually designed to handle the weight of all that heavy, heavy water pushing on them. Too much pressure and a wall could cave in.

“That’s why everyone is scared to permit them,” Schwalls said.

That, and the potential safety risk of trapping people inside a home surrounded by a moat of water.

The National Flood Insurance Program, which covers the vast majority of flood insurance policies in the country, bars communities from allowing dry floodproofing of homes in flood zones. Ignoring that rule could get flood insurance coverage yanked for an entire community. That’s an economic death sentence for a flood-prone community, because banks require flood insurance before they’ll issue a mortgage.

Despite that seemingly clear-cut policy, cities and counties across Florida have different approaches to the issue.

Miami-Dade flat out doesn’t issue flood panel permits for residential properties in flood zones, the county told the Herald. Yet the city of Naples, on its site, says it will issue permits for some homes in flood zones, provided the foundation is strong enough to resist waves of water.

The town of Fort Myers Beach issued permits for flood panels for a few years, until FEMA found out and put a stop to it, per reporting by the Cape Coral Breeze. FEMA did not respond to a request for comment from the Miami Herald.

Installing flood panels without a permit is a gamble. It could protect a property from floodwaters, but it could also get a homeowner in trouble with their local code compliance officer, or get a claim denied from their flood insurance provider.

“You absolutely can get your policy revoked or your claim denied. You structurally modified the building without a permit,” Schwalls said.

However, there are some private flood insurance companies that do offer discounts for homes that install flood barriers, said Stephen Gill, founder of Flood Risk America and seller of flood barriers.

Gill estimates the average cost for custom, certified flood panels for a 3-bedroom 2-bathroom home is somewhere in the neighborhood of $22,000. Not cheap, but cheaper than some of the major flood losses he’s seen from his Florida customers, especially after hurricanes.

“It’s more cost-effective to do that and have peace of mind. It just doesn’t help to get 25 cents on the dollar of a loss,” he said. “We’ve got private carriers that require it.”

Private carriers are still rare in the Florida flood market. The Institute for Insurance Information estimates that 9 out of 10 flood policies in Florida are still with the FEMA-backed flood insurance. And there’s no sign that their policy will change anytime soon.

“They’ve told us many times over the last 10 years that they’re going to adapt flood protection into the policy and nothing,” Gill said. “It’s a joke.”

But turn to the commercial market, and it’s a totally different story.

For businesses, flood panels are not only permissible but also encouraged via flood insurance discounts. Gill sells and installs flood barriers to customers including Mary Brickell Village and Tampa General Hospital. His products, he said, are certified to Florida Building Code standards and approved by FM Global, which tests and certifies property protection products.

John Dickson, president and CEO of Aon Edge, a private flood insurer, said that flood barriers have been kosher for commercial buildings for decades.

These products are permitted and inspected upon installation, and often they’re certified to a specific standard, which makes it easier to run the back end calculations that insurers like Aon do to decide how at risk a property is — and how much to charge.

The National Flood Insurance Program also offers discounts to commercial properties that choose to install flood panels.

“On the residential side we’re looking into it,” said Dickson. “There’s a lot of variation about how these devices are installed and effective.”

A slight wording change opens up a whole new world of options for homeowners.

Residents looking to floodproof their property with temporary barriers, instead of permanent panels, are very often given the green light. Products like inflatable dams, flood barriers that attach to doors more like dog gates or even good ol’ fashioned waterproofing tapes and foams are generally fine to install.

“Temporary flood barriers on a residential building are not dry floodproofing,” said Amy Knowles, the city of Miami Beach’s chief resilience officer, in a statement.

Miami Beach put out some guidance for homeowners looking to find temporary reprieve from “low-level and frequent flooding.” Think king tides and heavy rains, not hurricanes. As long as they follow local and state codes, the city said it will permit them.

In fact, they may even be reimbursable. Many policyholders might not know that they can get money back for buying the old standby for flood protection — sandbags.

If a flood is imminent, a National Flood Insurance Program policy will reimburse homeowners up to $1,000 for sandbags, lumber or pumps to protect their home, and pay federal minimum wage for the hours of labor it takes to install them. There’s another $1,000 on the table to cover costs of moving your property to keep it safe from floods, per the program’s website.

Experts say that homeowners might be able to get refunded for some non-sandbag purchases, but because it’s not written clearly into the policy it may vary case-to-case.

“If you hire UHAUL for all your stuff, you get reimbursed. In theory, you could have a deployable flood barrier that you rented and get reimbursed for it,” Schwalls said. “There’s not a lot of guidance on that.”

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