PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — The warnings were frank. If you don’t leave, Hurricane Milton will kill you. As Tampa prepared for a direct hit, it was far too late for anyone in Milton’s path to buy flood insurance.

“Normally when a warning or watches in order, they do put a moratorium on it where we cannot write flood insurance at that time,” said AAA veteran insurance agent Niki Koger. “So there is also a 30 day wait usually before flood insurance will even kick in.”

And, Koger said, make sure you understand how FEMA defines a flood.

“What constitutes a flood is that it affects more than two homes in a flood area,” Koger said. “So basically, it is rising water that comes from the ground up that constitutes a flood. This is not what most people think that like. If their bathtub overflows, that’s a flood. That’s not the general definition of a flood. Rising water that affects more than two homes in a area that is covered by the special flood insurance program.”

Under the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program, which you can buy from your agent, the maximum protection for your home is $250,000, and $100,000 for the contents of your home. If a $300,000 home is destroyed by flood waters and extra coverage is not purchased, your homeowner’s policy does not provide coverage.

“No, no, it does not,” Koger said. “Your regular homeowner’s policy specifically excludes flood because there’s a separate policy you can buy for it. So your homeowners will not do anything for you for flood — those rising waters.”

Regina Mobley: So what is your advice to anyone who lives in Hampton Roads or northeastern North Carolina and they own property?

Niki Koger: My advice, if you own property, you get a flood insurance policy, even if you think it would never happen to you. And that’s a pure example of what just happened in North Carolina. They were close to the Tennessee border and they got inundated by flood waters.

Unlike your homeowners policy, which is usually paid once a month, the entire cost of the flood policy is paid up front and is renewable every year. See your agent for additional coverage.