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Otterstedt Insurance Agency in Englewood Cliffs helped about 100 homeowners file insurance claims Monday, but most of them will likely be denied.

Most of the claims were from people with flooded basements, and the bad news for many of those policyholders is that standard homeowner's policies will rarely cover such flood damage, said Lydia Bashwiner, Otterstedt's claims manager.

A typical homeowner's policy will pay for damage from a tree that blew onto the house, and it will cover broken glass from a storm-tossed lawn chair. But a drowned furnace and water heater in the basement require a policy from the federal government's flood insurance program.

And homeowners with damage to finished basements probably will not be covered either by their standard homeowner's policies or their federal flood insurance, Bashwiner said.

The number of properties in New Jersey with federal flood insurance has risen about 7 percent in the past year to more than 215,000, said Rachael Moore, director of the Insurance Council of New Jersey, a trade association that represents 26 property and casualty insurers.

Most of the properties that have flood coverage are within designated flood plains, either along the shore or inland bodies of water where mortgage lenders require them.

Federal flood insurance, which is available through many private insurance agencies, will roughly double the cost of coverage for a typical home, Moore said. The average annual flood premium in New Jersey is $672.

The limits on coverage are $250,000 for damage to a building and $100,000 for its contents. Maximum coverage for businesses is $500,000 for buildings and $500,000 for contents. A few private insurers offer extra flood coverage for those willing to pay hefty premiums.

Recent floods in New Jersey have many homeowners more open to the idea of flood coverage, whether they live in a flood plain or not, Moore said.

Otterstedt also filed its own insurance claim Monday. The agency had 4 inches of water in the ground-floor training room and had to call a restoration crew to pump it out.

The flooding at Otterstedt's Englewood office was the result of a sump pump failure, and the agency's privately placed policy specifies that such damage is a covered loss, a spokeswoman said.

Take photos of any water in the house and damaged personal property. Your adjuster will need evidence of the damage to prepare your repair estimate.

Make a list of damaged or lost items and include their age and value where possible. If possible, have receipts for those items available for the adjuster.

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