BATON ROUGE — The Extension Disaster Education Network and the LSU AgCenter LaHouse Research and Education Center have released a new nationally applicable training program designed to make complex flood insurance information easier to understand, use and share.

The program, named Improving Flood Insurance Literacy to Support Resilient Communities, was developed with support from the EDEN Development Grant Program. The resource helps homeowners, renters, Extension professionals, community officials, real estate agents, builders and insurance professionals better understand flood risk, coverage, documentation, mitigation and financial preparedness.

Flood risk is often difficult to recognize, and Federal Emergency Management Agency Flood Insurance Rate Maps should not be the only information used to decide whether a household needs flood insurance. The program helps participants consider their actual risk, understand what policies cover and exclude, and identify steps that may reduce risk and insurance costs.

"Resilience starts with informed decisions," Carol Friedland, professor of biological and agricultural engineering and director of LaHouse, said. "You can't make a good call about flood insurance if you don't understand your actual risk, what your policy covers and what it leaves out, or that there are concrete steps you can take to lower your costs. This program puts that information in plain language so the people working with communities can actually use it."

Extension professionals, educators and community partners are encouraged to explore the Flood Insurance Literacy Program, incorporate the materials into their own programming and share the information with homeowners, clients and community members.

The program is available through the EDEN Resource Dashboard. https://resources.extensiondisaster.net/

Questions about implementation or content may be directed to the LaHouse Research and Education Center.