5 myths about flood insurance

When my basement flooded this spring, I learned the hard way about what my policy did not cover. Turns out, I was lucky. But flood victims like the McCoys weren't. Read on.

By Sharon Epperson

You can live on high land and still get hit by water damage.

Dora and Larry McCoy bought their Lane, Kan., home five years ago directly from the sellers. They didn't take out a mortgage and didn't think they would need flood insurance. Then, on June 29, after heavy rains pummeled their one-story home, water from a nearby creek overflowed, seeped into the basement and rose almost to the ceiling. The damage was too severe to repair, and the house was demolished. "I went from owning a home to being in debt," Dora says. "They make flood insurance so high, most people around here don't have it."

People make a lot of assumptions about flood insurance, and those misconceptions can be costly. Here are five myths -- and the facts:

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