As the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season looms, FloodFlash, a prominent insurtech recognized for its sensor-driven parametric flood insurance solutions, has unveiled a new product tailored to provide business interruption (BI) coverage in the United States.
The announcement comes against the backdrop of forecasts predicting an exceptionally active hurricane season, with experts warning of widespread property damage and substantial BI losses that could significantly impact businesses and communities.
Dubbed Flood BI, the newly introduced product aims to bridge a notable coverage gap. Presently, many businesses and public entities struggle to secure BI coverage within existing frameworks, as it is not typically included in policies offered by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), and standalone BI coverage from private carriers is relatively rare.
Flood BI offers flexible parametric claim payments, enabling businesses to address various BI aspects, including non-damage BI and denial of access. Consistent with FloodFlash’s core offerings, the product ensures rapid-payment claims, ensuring policyholders receive their full entitlement within weeks of a flooding event.
Policyholders can anticipate coverage limits of up to $5 million per location, with the possibility of an increase to $10 million subject to underwriter approval. Additionally, there is a blanket limit of $10 million for policies encompassing multiple locations.
Eligible sectors for Flood BI coverage span a diverse range, including hotels and hospitality, sports and leisure, retail, healthcare and assisted living, real estate, manufacturing, municipalities, and education. Activation of the policy is triggered by a pre-determined water depth, measured by FloodFlash’s proprietary sensors.
Rich Coyle, FloodFlash’s US commercial director, underscored the necessity for such coverage, stating, “Flooding causes billions of dollars in losses across the US every year, yet only 20% of those losses are covered by insurance—and a massive part of that uninsured loss comes from business interruption. The BI options on the market are too few and offered too rarely.”
In an effort to address this gap, FloodFlash has committed to extending support to a broad spectrum of organizations vulnerable to flooding, not limited to the Gulf and Eastern seaboard but spanning the entire US.
“We couldn’t be more excited to launch Flood BI. It takes the same principles of the FloodFlash product and applies them for a truly under-served section of the market. To the thousands of businesses at risk of flooding that rely on their premises to provide goods, hospitality, healthcare and more, we can now say Flood BI is here to help,” remarked Coyle.
