Further notes for flood victims:
1) Keep in mind that most houses that are catastrophically water-damaged and which remain empty (if boarded-up) for a year or more will have to be torn down due to deteriorating structural issues and irreversible infiltration of molds. Even if you finally receive some insurance re-imbursement and want to risk renovation, if FEMA and/or the county health department "condemned" it, as part of a post-storm survey, you will have no recourse. So, off the top, you will have to subtract $12-20K from your payout for demolition, or face escalating fines for non-compliance from the county plus the cost of demolition. (Costs are high because you can only use a licensed demo company officially approved by the county -- no short-cuts allowed.)
2) Be aware that your credit rating may be affected, negatively -- even if you have a great history and continue to make all your payments, every month. That is because your property will be re-appraised by the mortgage company and significantly devalued, at the same time your expenses are doubled or tripled; therefore, your debt to asset ratio may be thrown into a higher risk category.
3) The mortgage company may then try to coerce you into a complete payoff, or, announce that, from now on, you are required to pay a higher rate of interest -- even on a fixed rate loan. (You can fight this and win, but it is a tough fight with lots of bureaucracy to overcome, repeatedly.)
4) Ditto for credit card companies, who will raise your interest rate even if you have paid on the nose for years. This, too, is a fight you can win, but you have to fight it, and pay the higher rate in the interim.
5) Accept that you will not be able to sell your property, even as a building lot, for a very long time. Even in a strong market, the inventory of local properties for sale after a natural disaster will be glutted and it will take years for that surplus inventory to be re-absorbed.
Natural disasters plus opportunistic bureaucracy: the gift that keeps on giving.