When they’re made available, disaster relief funds can generally be used to repair and restore property that was damaged in a flood. Property owners shouldn’t treat the disaster relief program as an insurance program, though. To start with, the disaster relief program doesn’t provide grants for rebuilding after a natural disaster. The program instead offers no-interest loans. These loans don’t typically have interest rates, but the money borrowed must eventually be paid back. Furthermore, these funds often aren’t available. They’re only accessible after the president declares a disaster to be a national disaster, and many floods are never acknowledged as such by the president. While property owners may want to borrow money through the disaster relief program if funds are made available, it’s normally still wise to have flood coverage.