They want you to elevate your home...Put it on stilts so you will get cheaper rates on your flood insurance or maybe not be required to have flood insurance. What guages your Flood inurance rates is elevation and proxsimity to water.

Come on now, you mean all of those folk's that have already begun doing work , may have to tear it down and go up? No way that is true. Wait till some of these poor people go and try to sell thier homes and have to explain to the prospective buyer's the flood story. Imagine that sale, well we had only 5 ft of water on the first floor, but don't tell the mortgage company, ok?

@Andy If you house isn't a total loss, you can repair. There might be new codes for rebuilding. Make sure you have inspected below the house (crawl spaces) and all the floor joists and wall studs have a chance to be cleaned and dry. Don't resurface until you have power and heat.
FEMA has a grant program, not a loan, to upgrade certain methods of remediation against future losses.

Too many people have started before they have power. Concentrate on removing and cleaning. You are going to need time to inspect for mold and the temperature has been too low for adequate drying, especially for flooring and wall studs.

Nancy, many churches in the area have groups going out. Samaritan's Purse is going out cleaning houses - you can contact them through Grace and Peace Church. And Calvary Chapel in Old Bridge has a relief group. I will try to post the links for you.
http://www.ccob.org/page.asp?id=relief
http://www.graceandpeace.org/resources/SamaritansPurseWO.pdf

Nancy, send me an email to Jeff@RestoCorp.com We are an insurance restoration company in Point Pleasant. Maybe we can help you.

doesn't matter if you have a "tradtional" mortgage or a line of credit. as long as the residence is the collateral for the loan or line and you are in flood zone A, flood insurance is required. your bank is in the wrong and may not be aware that you are in a flood zone.

They didn't care if I had regular insurance. I think your incorrect. I'll fight them tooth and nail if need be. I'll never see a flood where I am. All FEMA is is a scam to replemish their funds for others who received aid. The mismanagement is horrible there. Read up on it.

Again with misinformation. Your mortgage company requires you to have flood insurance if you have a property in a flood zone. It's a separate policy because it is reinsured by the National Flood Insurance Program. There are very few people that can use a personal line of credit to buy a home, even if it is secured by home equity. If the home is collateral, they most likely will require regular insurance and flood insurance depending on its location.
Given the higher rates of interest, it's most likely cheaper to have a home mortgage and insurance. And you don't get to walk away from a line of credit by surrendering the property.

I live on Green Island and I am required to have flood insurance. Height of the property dictates your cost but so does the construction of the house. My home was built in 2003. The garage sits 5.8 feet above sea level and the living area is 9 feet above (we still had 2 feet of water in the garage and 2.5 feet in the crawlspace). In the cinder block and concrete crawlspace, it has 8-10 panels that are designed to break away if the water pressure gets really strong to let the water in and then out so the house stays on its foundation. My policy cost for 2012 was (and I stress WAS) $740. I live right across from a lagoon and the bay is three houses over from me. Before we settled on this house, we looked at an older home about the same size at a lower elevation without this feature and the insurance was $1400/year. Do your research and know that every house is a special case.