Your house has flooded. What happened? The house has never flooded before. Not once. No creek nearby. No river overflow. Just a heavy storm that sat a little longer than expected. By morning, water had pushed through the garage and crept into the living space. Your neighbors on the water? Dry.
At Bingham Insurance Group, we see this pattern all the time when Braselton, GA, homeowners talk to us. Flooding doesn’t require nearby water. It requires nowhere for water to go.
Water Follows Paths, Not Maps
Rain doesn’t fall and sits still. It spreads, runs, funnels, and pools. Drainage patterns, natural and human-made, decide where that water ends up. Slopes, compacted soil, curb lines, driveways, and grading all work together to direct the water.
And that’s why properties far away from any visible water can flood first. If runoff is directed toward a home and drainage can’t keep up, the water collects. Once it does, it looks for an escape. Garages. Crawl spaces. Low thresholds. Flooding happens without a river ever rising.
Development Changes the Rules
One of the most overlooked factors affecting your flooding risk is infrastructure changes, like new construction, widened roads, and added parking lots. These don’t just change traffic; they change the runoff behavior. Water that once dispersed slowly can suddenly arrive faster and in greater volumes.
Yes, the home is still the same, and the storm feels familiar. But the drainage patterns aren’t. And of course, flood insurance models take this into account. Proximity to water is secondary when surface runoff overwhelms drainage capacity first.
Why This Matters for Flood Insurance
Flood insurance covers the floods people don’t expect. The inland ones. The confusing ones. The ones that don’t match your mental picture of flood risk.
At Bingham Insurance Group, we help Braselton, GA, homeowners rethink their flood exposure based on how water moves around their property. Call us, and we’ll talk you through your risk exposure and options.
