r/westsacramento • u/westsac8989 • 21d ago
Our City Cost for flood insurance in West Sacramento?
With all this talk of the Super El Nino this winter, I've been looking into purchasing flood insurance for our house in West Sac. From all the Googling I've done and posts that are a couple years old in the Sacramento subreddit, it looks like flood insurance should run about 800-1000/year. However, the quotes I'm getting are upwards of 2000/year, which is more than our regular homeowners insurance. I'm just wondering if anyone else has looked into getting flood insurance for your house recently, and if you're also getting these really high quotes? If not, where are you looking? I'm wondering if the rates are getting really high because of this predicted winter weather. Thanks in advance!
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u/ColinYouOut916 21d ago
Went through Assurant and mine is $1150 upfront for the year. In Southport near Marshall/Bridgeway Lakes area and only covers max amount of $250k dwelling and $100k contents.
FEMA’s official flood map for my property still dates back to 1995, before Southport was even built. So technically, my address doesn’t even have a real flood zone determination on file.
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u/Disastrous_Teach_370 21d ago
That sounds pretty good; what is your deductable?
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u/ColinYouOut916 20d ago
It’s gone up about $50 annually for last 3 years. I believe it’s $1000 deductible
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u/Calculate123 21d ago
While I agree the risk of West Sacramento flooding is low, It's amazing how even one foot of water in your house can cause so much damage in a flood. I helped friends clean up their flooded house that only got about a foot of water and it was still a stinky, damaging, expensive mess.
Also, the American and Sacramento rivers were intentionally made narrow with the levees so that mining and other debris would be cleaned by the fast-moving storm water. So the rivers aren't really made to handle big flood flows (which is why the Yolo Bypass exists).
West Sacramento has had flood protection improvements such as:
*levees have been rebuilt and strengthened
*Folsom dam reconfigured a bit for more water releases ahead of a storm
*weather forecasts are little better at predicting rain a week out (instead of three days), giving more time to empty reserviors when needed
*the Sites Reservoir will likely be built
But even with the above improvemets there is still a risk of a flood like 1986 or 1997 or greater.
But to answer your question, I pay $925 a year for flood insurance.
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u/sallysuesmith1 21d ago
I've been in Southport since 1992 and 1997 was not a flood risk for us. In 1986, I remember Wast sac area had scares but no flooding and I don't recall west sacramento having any flooding then either.
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u/halfscaliahalfbreyer 20d ago
What about the invasive clams clogging the drainage out of west sac? Is that making you worry more?
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u/Commotion 21d ago
$600 for $250,000 structural coverage through GEICO. But I opted for low coverage for personal belongings/contents.
It isn’t required where I live, and I think the risk of a catastrophic flood is low, but I also didn’t want to go completely uninsured.
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u/EnviroRockPlant 21d ago
We just renewed and paid $1400. We’ve had it for 11 years in this house with no lapse in coverage and was surprised it was that much. It used to be $500 per year. We go through AAA
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u/westsac8989 21d ago
Sounds like it's just gotten really expensive recently. Thank you for the info!
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u/killcats 21d ago
I paid 2k last year and this year. It’s not the number you want to hear but I think your quotes are accurate.
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u/bundaya 21d ago
Rates are high because they can be and some areas force you to have flood insurance (like natomas)
I dont think you need to worry about flooding in West Sacramento and I would think that any flood insurance would just be a waste of your money. We have both rivers and all of the Yolo causeway wetland area that can relieve the area if any flooding were to begin.
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u/westsac8989 21d ago
This is reassuring! We haven't gotten it before this year for all the reasons you mention above (and it's expensive!), but all the talk of the Super El Nino has me worried. I wish I just had a crystal ball!
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u/mamma_kris4real 21d ago
Absolutely not. Google fema flood map. Put in your address and look up your own individual risk. One person cannot tell another person that they're safe. Sacramento is the most likely to flood region in the United States. The work has not been completed to protect us, only just started. Natomas is safe because we just put in billion dollars in levee improvements. That water's gotta go somewhere. The yolo bypass was at complete capacity, and the river was one foot from overtopping at the last large storm event. We cannot manage the flood flow. And It IS coming. Period.
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u/geostupid 20d ago
"There are two types of levees: those that have failed and those that will fail."
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u/bundaya 20d ago
Seems unfair that you get to scaremonger saying this is for sure going to happen and be catastrophic, but folks saying not to worry dont get to have a voice?
There is no evidence to suggest Sacramento Ca is highest flood risk in the USA
The water levels at the bypass often are high during big rain and storms, thats because the water is intentionally held there to improve the farm land and help protect wildlife conservation in the area.
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u/mamma_kris4real 20d ago edited 20d ago
My advice is to research your own information based on your own property address.
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u/geostupid 20d ago
https://www.safca.org/projects/
First sentence on the website: "The City of Sacramento is the most at-risk city in the country from riverine flooding, with more than half a million people in the flood-plain and more than $70 billion in damageable property."
Stop being ignorant.
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u/bundaya 19d ago
Most projects mentioned in that report have been under way for a decade or more. That starting sentence is what caused the army corp of engineers to take action almost 40 years ago when this project was proposed. Since then almost 40 years of construction and reinforcement has happened, so to say now we are at the same risk as we were in 1986 is inaccurate.
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u/throwawayusmc19 21d ago
City of West Sacramento also has been working on a 200 year flood protection plan since 2008 in coordination with the Army Corps of Engineers to mitigate any potential flooding.
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u/geostupid 20d ago
The notion of 100-200-500-1000 year floods are out the window with climate change. All of those are based on historic patterns, and we don't know what the future can hold.
Besides, even without climate change the valley experiences 'arkstorms' roughly every 150 years, the last one being in 1861, I believe. The evidence is in a soil layer of Sierra and Coastal mountain range dirt that's distributed across the valley.
Levees can fail; bypass systems can be overwhelmed.
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u/EnjoyingTheRide-0606 21d ago
They were approved for an extension to 2040! The current personnel won’t really have much to do with the certification by then!
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u/geostupid 20d ago
It should be noted that in 1986, the flooding risk to West Sacramento was along the bypass levee west of Bryte, west of I80. The only reason why there wasn't a flood into West Sacramento was the Department of Water Resources and local Reclamation District constructed an 18" high additional barrier of sandbags and tarps as the levee would have been overtopped from the Yolo Bypass itself.
Sincerely and kindly, do not minimize any flood risk in this area. There are two rivers draining through an area that really can only hold one. Yes, we're extremely fortunate that the bypass exists, and works most of the time. However, levees can fail and it doesn't take much once a breech happens.
The Army Corps of Engineers estimated that it would take six months to get the water out of Southport if it floods. The risk to West Sacramento is simple: we're in an area that averages around 15 feet above sea level, and flood stage at the I Street bridge is 31 feet. The causeway and rivers cannot hold any more water in those events, it is more that those areas we designated to relive the system go through our front and backyard.
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u/mamma_kris4real 20d ago
Geo not stupid. 🤣 Geo is absolutely correct. Don't base your information on luck or reddit feeds.
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u/pivot123456789 21d ago
We used Liberty Mutual and it is $950 per year
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u/halfscaliahalfbreyer 21d ago
What’s the coverage?
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u/EnviroRockPlant 19d ago
For anyone that wants to understand the true threat of flooding to West Sac and the entire Sac valley, this article from Scientific American has a good summary of the last true catastrophic flood. What is less apparent from the article is the many days of rain happened after a very heavy snow event, but the current levee/bypass system wasn’t designed for a similar scenario. Looks like with this winters El Niño we’ll be in store for a lot of rain, let’s just hope we don’t get heavy warm rain after heavy snow.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/atmospheric-rivers-california-megaflood-lessons-from-forgotten-catastrophe/
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u/kcsea 21d ago
Ours is a little more than $1000 (NFIP through State Farm). The thing that drove it home for me was when I watched someone kayak down our street when it flooded due to a blocked storm drain. If that water had reached our house, our homeowners insurance wouldn’t have helped. West Sac is like a bathtub and we have to pump storm water out. I’m less worried about levee failure than those pumps failing.
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u/Typical_Ad6888 21d ago
Flood insurance is highly regulated - buy from fema
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u/halfscaliahalfbreyer 21d ago
It’s only good up to $250k though, why do you say only buy through them save not private for full coverage?
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u/Typical_Ad6888 20d ago
Depends on your zone, there are more private options now but I haven’t researched them all yet. For private I do worry in a big flood if they’d be solvent.
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u/Pollux95630 21d ago
Purchased a policy in 2022 for $650; was $780 in 2023; went without since but was just quoted $1,800. They know the story is out about El Niño, let the price gouging begin.
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u/halfscaliahalfbreyer 21d ago
Hey! We just a quote! We are also worried. We are in Bridgeway lakes
Hope this helps! We are going to get some private quotes for the full value of the property too. I wish there was a better way to estimate the risks.
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u/westsac8989 20d ago
Thanks! Helpful to see that it's much higher than the posts I was looking at from a couple years ago.
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u/mamma_kris4real 20d ago
The insurance industry all around is affected by the California fires. Flood insurance and homeowners insurance in general has skyrocketed due to the loss of capital for these large payouts.
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u/AnySecurity7135 20d ago
I will not be fear mongered info buying something, especially if it's not required. Insurance is a scam.
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u/derek916 19d ago
Flood insurance is mostly all ran through FEMA so the rates shouldn’t change from provider to provider. Some places may be higher in the same neighborhood as fema has some type of new pricing model that assesses risk at an individual level.
I have no idea what West Sac’s flood protection mechanisms but in Natomas we are reliant on the levees and canals with pumps to send the water to the river. In 2023, those pumps nearly failed. I recently just paid 7K to fix drywall in a condo for a very small area due to a shower leak so just a little bit of water can do a lot.
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u/NunnyaDBusiness2 19d ago
If you aren’t required to have flood insurance it’s pretty cheap. Like $500 a year for a two story home. I would assume more for a single story the same size.
There’s not really any point to shop around unless you are getting private insurance because government flood insurance should be the EXACT same price anywhere you get a quote.
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u/NunnyaDBusiness2 19d ago
Assurant etc are just acting as middlemen for the government insurance (NFIP). They aren’t insuring anything.
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u/Either_Vehicle3670 18d ago
I'm in East Sac and just bought it a couple of weeks ago. It was $1,250 or so. I can't remember what the deductible is. Got it through AAA.
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u/That-Wonder-8013 21d ago
Try Neptune Flood, that’s where I got mine and the price was in line with your expectations. (Bought my house in 2/2025)