As the water recedes another crisis is emerging: a lack of flood insurance. Only seven percent of Texas homeowners have it.

Many people don’t know flood damage isn’t covered by standard homeowners’ insurance. Plus, you may need flood coverage even if you don’t live in a high risk area.

News 4 I-Team is digging into why flood insurance is getting harder to find and more expensive.

More people are moving into Texas and that growth is causing more property to be developed. At the same time some insurance companies are deciding not to offer flood insurance, pushing prices higher.

In all the areas where we’ve covered flooding: Kerr County, Boerne, Uvalde County, we’ve heard a common story from homeowners: they didn’t have flood insurance.

“Well, so we did an insurance claim but nobody in this neighborhood because none of this neighborhood is in a floodplain but they call the 100 year floodplain nobody here have flood insurance so we already did an insurance claim with our home insurance but it was declined and denied pretty quickly,” said William Langham of Uvalde.

Many homeowners didn’t buy flood insurance because they live outside FEMA’s 100-year flood plain map, so their mortgage lender doesn’t require them to purchase it.

“The National Flood Insurance Program has a statistic that 32 percent of their claims occur outside of the high risk flood areas, and we say that anywhere it can rain it can flood,” said Mistie Hinote with the Texas Department of Insurance.

Other people think their homeowner’s policy covers flood damage and don’t realize flood insurance needs to be purchased separately.

Your homeowner’s insurance company may offer a separate flood policy, but it can be difficult finding coverage, you may have to purchase it from the National Flood Insurance Program.

“It’s kind of an insurer of last resort so we recommend people go to their homeowner’s insurance company first and ask if they offer flood insurance and if they don’t that’s when you would go to the National Flood Insurance Program,” Hinote said.

FEMA oversees that program and in 2021 the Biden administration changed the way it calculates risk causing prices to increase.

In Texas flood insurance premiums can range from $700 to $850 per year.

Many cars have been damaged in the flooding, but car insurance is handled differently. If you have comprehensive coverage that would cover a flooded car.

Many homeowners hit by flooding in Kerr County last July did not have flood insurance and they relied on donations and charitable groups to help rebuild. Some of those same groups are mobilizing again to help this year.