Category: Home Insurance Author: Bogart & Brownell of Maryland, Inc. Location Tags: Rockville, MD | Montgomery County | Gaithersburg | Bethesda | Maryland
If you own a home in Montgomery County and assume your homeowners insurance covers flooding, you’re not alone — and you’re mistaken about something that could cost you everything.
This is one of the most common and most consequential coverage gaps we see. Here’s what’s actually happening in our area right now, and what you need to know before the next storm season.
Your Homeowners Policy Does Not Cover Flood Damage
This surprises people every single time, so let’s be direct about it: standard homeowners insurance does not cover flooding. It doesn’t matter which carrier you’re with, how comprehensive your policy is, or how long you’ve been a customer.
Flood damage requires a completely separate policy. The Maryland Insurance Administration is explicit on this point, and so is every carrier we work with. If water enters your home from the ground up — whether from a river overflowing, a storm drain backing up, or surface water rising during a heavy rain event — your homeowners policy won’t pay for it.
Montgomery County’s own website puts it plainly: just one inch of water in a home can cause more than $25,000 in damage. Without a flood policy, that bill is yours.
Montgomery County’s Flood Maps Are Being Redrawn Right Now
Here’s what makes this especially urgent for homeowners in our area: FEMA is in the process of updating the official Flood Insurance Rate Maps for Montgomery County, Gaithersburg, and Rockville.
The appeal period for the new preliminary maps closed in April 2025. Once appeals are resolved — expected sometime this summer — the finalization process begins. New maps are currently projected to take effect in spring 2026, at which point new flood insurance requirements go into effect.
What this means practically: some properties that are not currently in a designated high-risk flood zone will be remapped into one. And here’s the important part — if you purchase flood insurance before the new maps take effect, you may qualify for a lower rate under the current maps. Once the new designation becomes official, rates for newly mapped properties can increase substantially.
If you haven’t checked your property against the preliminary maps, now is the time.
You Don’t Have to Be Near a River to Flood
This is the second thing most homeowners get wrong.
People assume flood risk means living right on the Potomac or immediately adjacent to Rock Creek. That’s not how it works. Montgomery County sits in a watershed that includes eleven major stream corridors — Sligo Creek, Cabin John Creek, the Northwest Branch, and others — along with thousands of acres of impervious surface from decades of suburban development that sends stormwater racing downhill with nowhere to go.
The numbers bear this out. According to FEMA data cited by Montgomery County, nearly one-third of flood insurance claims nationally come from properties outside of high-risk flood zones. Low- and moderate-risk properties still flood — they just flood less predictably, which is partly why homeowners there tend not to have coverage.
If your home is in a lower-elevation neighborhood, near any stream or tributary, downhill from a heavily developed area, or has experienced water intrusion during heavy rains, your flood risk is real regardless of what zone designation your property currently carries.
The 30-Day Waiting Period Is Not a Footnote
Flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) — the federally backed program that Montgomery County participates in — typically has a 30-day waiting period before coverage takes effect.
The City of Rockville’s own emergency preparedness guidance warns residents about this specifically: the time to buy is before a disaster, not when one is forecast.
You cannot watch a storm system forming in the Atlantic, call your agent, and have flood coverage in place before it arrives. The window doesn’t work that way. This is a policy you need to have in place continuously, not reactive coverage you pick up when the forecast looks bad.
What Flood Insurance Actually Covers — and What It Doesn’t
Through the NFIP, a standard flood policy covers two things separately: the building structure and its contents. It’s worth understanding both.
Building coverage pays for structural damage to your home — foundation, walls, floors, electrical systems, plumbing, HVAC, built-in appliances, and permanently installed carpeting and cabinetry.
Contents coverage is separate and optional — it covers personal belongings including furniture, clothing, electronics, and portable appliances.
A few things flood insurance typically does not cover: damage to landscaping, decks and patios, fences, swimming pools, cars (that’s what your auto policy is for), or living expenses if you’re displaced. If you’re renting, renters flood insurance protects your belongings specifically — your landlord’s policy covers the structure, not what’s inside it.
There are also private flood insurance options beyond the NFIP that can offer higher coverage limits or fill some of the gaps above. As an independent agency, we can walk through both options and help you determine what makes sense for your property.
What to Do If You’re Not Sure About Your Risk
Start by looking up your property on the preliminary flood maps. Montgomery County’s Department of Permitting Services has a FEMA Flood Map page with an interactive tool where you can search by address. Given that the maps are currently in the appeal/revision process, it’s worth checking both your current designation and the preliminary one to see if anything is changing.
Then have a conversation with your agent before the new maps become effective. If your property is going to be remapped into a higher-risk zone, purchasing coverage under current map designations could mean meaningfully lower rates locked in going forward.
If you’re not sure whether you have flood insurance or what it covers, that’s worth a five-minute phone call to confirm. We talk to clients regularly who thought their homeowners policy handled it — and found out otherwise, unfortunately, after a claim.
The Bottom Line
Flood insurance in Montgomery County isn’t just for homes on the riverbank. It’s for anyone who doesn’t want to discover a six-figure coverage gap after the next heavy storm rolls through.
The combination of FEMA’s map updates, the 30-day waiting period, and the genuine flood history of this county makes this one of the more time-sensitive coverage conversations for homeowners in our area right now.
Bogart & Brownell has been helping homeowners in Rockville, Gaithersburg, Bethesda, and across Montgomery County navigate coverage decisions like this since 1948. If you’d like to talk through your flood risk and options, we’re here.
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Bogart & Brownell of Maryland, Inc. is an independent insurance agency located in Rockville, MD, serving homeowners throughout Montgomery County, the DC metro area, and all of Maryland. Call us at (301) 444-4500.
Note: Flood map update timelines referenced in this article are based on information current as of spring 2025. FEMA and Montgomery County timelines are subject to change. Contact us or visit the Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services website for the latest information.
