Ask Mr. Answer Person your questions about how flood insurance works.

A number of decorahnews.com readers have e-mailed Mr. Answer Person lately with questions similar to these: "Why is it that no one can get flood insurance in the City of Decorah?  Does this also apply in the county? At least for the city I remember there was something that the city had to do to allow the purchase of flood insurance.  Can you review that process? Is this something easy or is it difficult and costly?  Can we get the city to do this?"

Mr. Answer Person says: "These have been popular questions in the wake of last week's flooding.  Let's start with some basics:

There are generally three ways a homeowner or business owner can experience problems involving water.  If it rains a lot and water comes into your building through the doors or windows, that's flooding.  We'll address flood insurance in a minute.

But there are two other types of water problems that are NOT covered by flood insurance—water seepage through a building's foundation because of saturated ground and water that gets into a building because of a sewer backup or toilet backup.  In the case of water backing up into a building, property owners CAN purchase a rider on their homeowner's insurance policy—but they need to specifically purchase such a rider.  In the case of seepage through a foundation, many insurance policies exclude such events from coverage.

So it's important to point out that, depending on the cause of damage, insurance policies don't always cover every water problem.

In the case of flood insurance, it's a pretty straightforward rule of thumb—if water gets so high it comes through a window or door of your building, it's a flood.  One other standard declares it is flooding if there's a pond of standing water that covers your property and at least one neighboring property, or two acres of your own property.

In 2008, when Decorah suffered its last major flooding, City of Decorah officials decided it was time to take the steps necessary to qualify the community for flood insurance coverage.  In order for flood insurance to be sold in an area, the local government has to apply to become a "participating community."  Decorah did that—and FEMA and the National Flood Insurance Program placed the city of Decorah in its "Emergency" Program in 2008.  In 2011 FEMA approved the City of Decorah's application to participate in the regular flood insurance program.  That meant property owners could pay for up to $250,000 in coverage, as opposed to the initial limit of $35,000. The City of Spillville has not been as fortunate and still is in the "Emergency" FEMA program, meaning Spillville residents still can purchase only a maximum of $35,000 in flood insurance.

The rest of Winneshiek County is even less fortunate—your community has to apply to be in the flood insurance program and neither Winneshiek County nor any of the other communities in the county have done so.

But if you're fortunate enough to live within the Decorah city limits, applying for flood insurance is fairly straightforward.  Everyone within Decorah can get flood insurance, since the community as a whole has qualified for the program, but remember that a flood policy is not there for seepage and water back-up of drains or sewer lines

If you contact an insurance agent who sells flood insurance, they will take a look at the flood insurance map for Decorah to determine what your rate will be.  "Zone A" is the high-risk area of Decorah, according to the flood mapping.  "Zone X" property owners can get lower premiums—they're in areas that are at less risk of flooding, according to FEMA, but still might need flood insurance.

It's also important to point out that if you buy flood insurance, it covers your property 12 months out of the year.  So if a freak rainstorm happens in March or November, you're just as covered as if a flood happens in the summertime.

If you're building a new home and borrowing money to pay for it, your lender will require you to purchase flood insurance.  Speak to your banker!

Finally, if Mr. Answer Person hasn't answered all your questions, a good place to go for additional information and explanations is the federal website www.floodsmart.gov.  Good luck!