Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has been urging Floridians to purchase flood insurance to protect their homes. McCarty's warning comes on the eve of the 2006 hurricane season, which officially began the first of this month.

“One of the many tragedies of Hurricane Katrina,” McCarty noted in a department release, “was that many people were unaware that flood damage is not covered by their homeowners' policies. Buying flood insurance is easy, affordable, and provides an extra layer of security in the event of a catastrophic event.”

“I am pleased to report that in Florida nearly 34 percent of Florida's homes do have flood insurance, but that still leaves two-thirds of families without this coverage. Even people outside of the flood zones need this coverage,” McCarty adds. A recent Rand Corporation study showed that one-third of all floods occurred outside standard flood hazard areas; however, only one percent of people outside the flood plains buy insurance. McCarty, who heads the Office of Insurance Regulation, has been a long-standing advocate of updating outdated flood zone maps used by the National Flood Insurance Program administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.