Blog: A conversation about flood risk with Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara
As California contends with floods this year, PPIC Water Policy Center director Ellen Hanak spoke with Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara about how to better protect the state’s residents from flood risk, which is growing in our changing climate. How many people are insured for floods in California? There are two important things to know about the flood insurance landscape in California. First, Californians have an insurance protection gap: only 2% of Californians have flood insurance. The vast majority don’t have it, even though flooding is expensive and common. Second, we have a knowledge gap: most people don’t know that home insurance doesn’t cover floods, or that much of the state is at risk of flooding.