BATON ROUGE - FEMA announced Thursday that over 8,000 Louisianans with recently expired National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policies may still be able to renew in full and then file a claim for losses due to Hurricane Delta or the next flood.

Officials with FEMA say residents should call their insurance agent or company, or the NFIP Call Center at 1-800-427-4661 to determine if their policy is still within a renewal grace period.

NFIP policies typically have a 30-day grace period. In order to be covered for a claim after your policy expires, your renewal premium must be paid, and the policy must be renewed before the end of the grace period. For example, for a policy that expired on September 15, 2020, the NFIP insurer must receive the renewal premium payment on or before October 14, 2020, to avoid a lapse and be eligible for claims.

Currently there are over 7,500 NFIP policies that have expired within the last 30 days that could be eligible for renewal without a lapse in coverage. 

Additionally, because budgets have been stretched thin due to COVID-19, FEMA extended the grace period from 30 days to 120 days for policies that have an expiration date between Feb. 13, 2020, and June 15, 2020.

For example, for a policy that expired on June 15, the last day of the grace period extension window, the NFIP insurer must receive the renewal premium payment on or before October 12, 2020, to avoid a lapse in coverage, and still be eligible for claims.

 Click here to read the March 28, 2020, grace period extension bulletin and don’t delay in renewing your policy if possible.

Currently there are over 650 NFIP policies that expired between June 10, 2020, and June 15, 2020, that could be eligible for renewal without a lapse in coverage. 

For FEMA's most up-to-date information on relief for Hurricane Laura, visit www.fema.gov/disaster/4559 and https://fema.connectsolutions.com/lauramit/ and follow the FEMA Region 6 Twitter account at twitter.com/FEMARegion6.