If you own a home in Portland or Hillsboro, you must understand that water damage and flood damage are not the same thing. Not even close. And depending on which one you are dealing with, your insurance claim could either get approved without a hitch or get denied entirely, leaving you to foot a very expensive bill on your own.
So let us talk about what these two categories actually mean, how your policies handle them, and what you can do right now to make sure you are protected before anything goes wrong.
First, What Is the Actual Difference?
The way insurance companies define these two terms has nothing to do with how much water is involved or how bad the damage looks. It has everything to do with where the water came from.
Water damage generally refers to water that originates from inside your home or from your roof. Think of a burst pipe under your kitchen sink, a washing machine that overflows, a water heater that gives out and leaks all over your garage floor, or rain that gets in through a damaged section of your roof. The water source is internal, or it is water that came in because of a structural issue with the home itself.
Flood damage, on the other hand, refers to water that comes from an external natural event. A river that overflows its banks, a heavy rainstorm that causes surface water to rise and push into your home, storm surges, and mudflows all fall into this category. The key point that most insurers use is this: if two or more properties in your area were affected by the same rising water event, what you experienced is legally and contractually classified as a flood.
That distinction might sound technical, but it has enormous financial consequences.
What Does a Standard Homeowner’s Policy Cover?
Most standard homeowner’s insurance policies in Oregon will cover water damage, as long as it was sudden and accidental. If your pipe bursts overnight and soaks your hardwood floors, your standard policy will likely kick in. If your roof takes damage in a windstorm and rain gets through before you can get it repaired, you are probably covered there too.
What standard policies typically do not cover is anything that could be considered gradual or preventable. If a slow drip under your bathroom sink has been quietly rotting out your subfloor for six months and you never addressed it, your insurer is going to call that a maintenance issue and deny the claim. The same goes for mold that develops because of long-term moisture problems you were aware of. Insurance is designed to respond to sudden disasters, not to replace regular home upkeep.
What About Flood Damage?
Flood damage is not covered under a standard homeowner’s policy. At all. If a creek near your Hillsboro neighborhood swells after a major rainstorm and water gets into your basement, your regular insurance will not cover a single dollar of that damage unless you have a separate flood insurance policy.
Flood insurance in the United States is largely handled through the National Flood Insurance Program, which is managed by FEMA. Some private insurers also offer flood policies, and in certain cases they come with better coverage limits or more flexibility than the federal program. Either way, this is a completely separate policy that you have to purchase on its own, and there is typically a 30-day waiting period before it takes effect. That means you cannot wait until a storm is already on the radar to go shopping for coverage.
Oregon has a complicated relationship with flooding. The Willamette Valley, which includes Portland and the surrounding metro area, sits in a floodplain in several areas, and the Pacific Northwest’s rainy seasons can push already saturated ground to its limits. Many homeowners in the region assume they are covered because flooding feels like a general weather event, but your standard policy writer drew a very clear line, and flooding is on the other side of it.
The Gray Areas That Can Complicate Your Claim
Not every water situation falls neatly into one box, and that is where things can get frustrating. Sewer backups are a good example. If your sewer line backs up into your home during a heavy rainstorm, is that flood damage or water damage? The answer depends on what caused the backup, and insurers will investigate. Some homeowner policies include sewer backup as an optional rider, so it is worth checking whether yours does.
Groundwater seepage is another gray area.
If water slowly seeps into your basement through cracks in the foundation during a wet season, most standard policies will not cover it, and depending on the cause, flood insurance may not either. This is one of those scenarios where the specific language of your policy really matters.
Hydrostatic pressure damage, which is when the weight of saturated soil pushes water through your foundation walls, tends to fall into a similar ambiguous zone. Getting a clear answer from your insurer before you file a claim can save you a lot of back-and-forth after the fact.
What Documentation Do You Actually Need?
The best time to think about documentation is before anything goes wrong, because once water is in your home, you are going to be focused on mitigating the damage, not cataloging your belongings.
Start with a home inventory. Walk through every room and take videos of your belongings, your appliances, your flooring, and any areas of the home that might be vulnerable to water intrusion. Store those videos somewhere offsite, whether that is a cloud drive or an email to yourself, so that they are accessible even if your devices are damaged.
Keep records of all maintenance and repairs you do on your home. If you replaced your water heater two years ago or had a plumber come out to address a slow drain, that documentation supports your case that you have been a responsible homeowner who does not let problems fester.
When damage does occur, take photographs and videos before you start cleaning anything up. Call your insurer promptly and ask specifically whether the damage is being categorized as water damage or flood damage, because that categorization affects everything that follows. Get that answer in writing if you can.
If your claim is denied or you feel the damage is being miscategorized, you have the right to request a re-evaluation and to bring in a public adjuster to advocate on your behalf. Oregon has consumer protection resources through the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation that can also help if you feel your insurer is not handling your claim fairly.
What Should You Do Right Now?
Pull out your homeowner’s insurance policy and actually read the water-related exclusions. Look specifically for language about flood, surface water, groundwater, and sewer backup. If any of those feel like a gap in your coverage and you live in an area of Portland or Hillsboro that could reasonably flood or back up during a storm, it is worth a conversation with your insurance agent about your options.
If you are not sure whether your property is in a designated flood zone, FEMA maintains flood maps that are publicly accessible, and your local county assessor’s office can also point you in the right direction.
Water damage of any kind has a way of escalating quickly and expensively. Knowing exactly what your policies cover before you need them is one of the smartest and most genuinely protective things you can do as a homeowner in the Pacific Northwest.
What to Do the Moment You Notice Water or Flood Damage
The first few hours after you discover water damage or flooding in your home are some of the most consequential. What you do, and what you do not do, can directly affect both the extent of the damage and the outcome of your insurance claim.
The very first thing to do is make sure the situation is safe. If there is any chance the water has come into contact with your electrical system, do not enter the affected area until the power has been shut off. Floodwater in particular can carry contaminants and pathogens that make it genuinely hazardous, so avoid wading through standing water if you can help it.
Once you have confirmed it is safe to move around, stop the source of the water if it is something you can control. Shut off the main water supply if a pipe has burst or an appliance has failed. If the damage is from an external flood event, your focus shifts to keeping additional water from entering if possible, but do not put yourself at risk trying to hold back a natural event.
From there, call a professional restoration company before you do anything else. This is not the moment to start ripping out wet drywall yourself or running box fans and hoping for the best. Water that is not properly extracted and dried out within the first 24 to 48 hours creates ideal conditions for mold growth, and mold can become a much bigger and more expensive problem than the original water damage.
Ethos Water Restoration serves the Portland and Hillsboro area and handles both water damage and flood damage situations. Their team can assess the full scope of the damage quickly, begin professional extraction and drying, and help you understand what you are actually dealing with before you pick up the phone with your insurer. Having a professional restoration company involved early also gives you a clear, documented record of the damage as it was found, which is exactly what you need to support your claim.
While you are waiting for the restoration team to arrive, take your photos and videos. Document everything you can see from a safe vantage point. Move valuables and important documents out of the affected area if it is safe to do so, but resist the urge to throw anything away. Your insurer may need to inspect damaged items before they can be discarded, and tossing them too early can complicate your claim.
When you call your insurance company to report the damage, be specific about what you observed and when you first noticed it. If restoration professionals are already on-site or on their way, mention that as well. It signals that you are taking the situation seriously and acting to prevent further loss, which is generally viewed favorably during the claims process.