NFIP & Private Coverage for Houma Homeowners
Flood Insurance in Houma, LA
Houma's flood risk is not a fixed number — the marsh that used to absorb storm surge is disappearing, and the levee ring meant to replace it is still being built. That is a risk you insure against, not one you wait out.
Nearly every Houma homeowner should carry flood insurance. The Terrebonne Basin has lost roughly 502 square miles of wetland since 1932 — the largest loss of any basin in Louisiana — and the Morganza to the Gulf levee system that would ring the parish is not complete. Homeowners insurance never covers rising water or storm surge, so a separate NFIP or private flood policy is the only protection.
- The Terrebonne Basin has lost about 502 square miles of wetland since 1932.
- Morganza to the Gulf is a 98-mile system for 150,000 people — and still unfinished.
- Terrebonne carried 1,874 repetitive-loss properties; 43% had been mitigated by 2017.
- Homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage. You need a separate policy.
The Root Agency provides flood insurance in Houma, served from our Baton Rouge office and licensed across Louisiana.
Why it floods here
Why Is Houma's Flood Risk Still Changing?
Because the land itself is. The Terrebonne Basin has lost roughly 502 square miles — about 321,730 acres — of wetland since 1932, the greatest decrease of any basin in the state, driven by subsidence, sediment starvation, saltwater intrusion along navigation canals and the breakdown of the barrier islands. Every square mile of marsh that disappears is surge protection that used to sit between the Gulf and your street and no longer does. A house in Houma can face more exposure this decade than it did last, without the owner changing a thing.
Source: Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program · Morganza Action Coalition · UNO-CHART for LA SAFE
The engineered answer is Morganza to the Gulf: roughly 98 miles of earthen levee 9 to 15 feet high, 22 floodgates on navigable waterways, 23 water control structures and a lock complex on the Houma Navigation Canal, designed to give 100-year, Category 3 surge protection to more than 150,000 people across coastal Terrebonne and Lafourche. It is genuinely ambitious and genuinely incomplete — no federal construction funds have been appropriated, and the local sponsor is building interim features with state and local money. Hurricane Ida made the stakes plain on 29 August 2021, coming ashore as a Category 4 at Port Fourchon with 150 mph winds; a 138 mph gust was measured at Dulac, in lower Terrebonne. Until the ring is closed, the policy on your house is the part of the system you control.
What it covers — and what it doesn't
What Flood Insurance Covers in Houma
Building Property Coverage
Structure, foundation, wiring, plumbing, HVAC, water heater and built-in appliances, up to your policy limit.
Personal Property Coverage
Furniture, electronics and clothing once water reaches them; a separate limit, worth setting deliberately in surge country.
NFIP Coverage
Federally backed flood insurance open to every Houma property owner, behind an interim levee reach or not.
Private Flood Insurance
Private-market policies that can offer higher limits or coverages NFIP caps out on, which matters on higher-value coastal homes.
Preferred Risk Policies
Lower-cost coverage some Terrebonne homes outside the high-risk zones qualify for. Ask rather than assume.
Not sure what your current flood policy actually covers?
Why choose us
Why Houma Homeowners Choose The Root Agency
Terrebonne Parish had 1,874 repetitive-loss properties on the NFIP's books as of 31 October 2017, with 801 of them — about 43% — already mitigated. That tells you two things: this community floods more than once, and it has done real work about it. Underwriting in that environment rewards documentation and punishes guesswork. Steve Root has more than twenty years with Allstate, the agency is licensed statewide, and Allstate's mobile catastrophe response is deployed into disaster zones rather than waiting for the roads to clear.
- Bring Your Elevation Certificate: In Terrebonne it is often the single biggest lever on your premium. If you don't have one, we'll tell you whether it's worth getting.
- Check Your Prior-Loss History: Repeat losses affect how a property is rated and what mitigation credits you may qualify for. Know your file before you shop it.
- Don't Insure to the Levee: Protection under construction is not protection in force, and no levee reimburses you for a ruined floor.
- Mind the 30-Day Wait: Most new flood policies don't take effect for 30 days. In a parish this exposed, that makes spring the deadline, not June.
Where we serve
Serving Houma from Our Baton Rouge Office
The Root Agency operates from one office on Goodwood Blvd in Baton Rouge, roughly sixty miles north of Houma, and we're licensed across Louisiana. We have no Houma office and won't pretend to. Terrebonne Parish clients work with us entirely by phone, email and text — Gray, Bayou Cane and Chauvin included. Start on our flood insurance page and read it next to our home insurance page, because in a hurricane the wind and the water are settled under two different policies.
Ready to protect your Houma home?
FAQ
Flood Insurance in Houma — Common Questions
Sources
Talk to a Louisiana flood specialist
Tell us about your Houma property and we’ll review your options — no pressure, no obligation.