With the threat of storms knocking on the door, many of us are thinking about protecting our homes. The city of St. Petersburg is on track to save you money on your flood insurance if you live in a flood hazard area.
“Insurance costs have gone up over the two years significantly," Gale Ingram said.
Her family's Shore Acres home is in what St. Pete calls the special flood hazard area and flood insurance can be notoriously high here. But some relief could be coming to Gale Ingram's family.
The city of St. Pete is set to drop from a FEMA class 6 to 5, saving homeowners living in the flood zones a little more than $1.9 million collectively on flood insurance.
“That would be great for the homeowners, because all the other expenses are going up," Ingram said.
The city has made changes, like raising the minimum height on new construction by two feet. That's how they're changing the FEMA designation and now it means an extra 5% cut to flood insurance rates.
“For the amount of money that we are paying, 5% is some savings so it can pay for some stuff for him so definitely I’ll take some savings," Luciano Matto said.
That's money Matto can spend on supplies he knows he needs living in the Shore Acres neighborhood.
"In case anything happens you know you need water, you need supplies, you need like canned foods,” Matto said.
You probably already know if you live in a flood hazard zone, but you can check the map to verify.
That FEMA designation should change October 1.
