So you live in Wisconsin, far away from any hurricanes and ocean storm surges. You don’t need flood insurance, right?
Wrong. The big thaw spreading across the Midwest is a perfect lesson for why you do, in fact, need flood insurance.
The Wall Street Journal reported that in Lone Rock, Wisconsin, temperatures rose 80 degrees in three days, from minus 39 to 41. That kind of temperature swing is a recipe for floods.
Most obviously, melting ice and snow can swell rivers. But especially worrisome are “ice jams,” which form when frozen rivers melt into large ice chunks that can lodge together and block the river’s flow. In the worst cases, these artificial dams cause serious flooding in the area around the river.
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http://www.iii.org/insuranceindustryblog/flood-insurance-ice-jam/
