For 46 years now, Nancy Reed has watched thunderstorms arrive and make their way through town, their comforting rumbles of thunder and gentle raindrops on the rooftop easing her to sleep.

Then came last week’s rude awakening.

“I went to bed at about 2:30,” Reed recalls of the early Sunday storm. “I was just watching it, like I always do. It’s just a habit. Then my husband woke me up about 4 o’clock. He said, ‘Don’t get up. We’re flooded.'”

Reed, a 67-year-old grocery clerk on medical leave, wiped away moisture from her cheek. She figured she’d been perspiring.

“But it was the bed,” she said. “It was wet. It got up about 33 inches in our bedroom.”

Now Reed and her husband, Duane, find themselves awash in an all-too-familiar position. The Easton residents are being forced to mop up water, assess damages and start working to repair the ravages unleashed by rising waters.

All without any help from insurance, which she’d canceled back in the late ’70s or early ’80s.

“I had six children, and that was an expense I just didn’t need,” Reed recalled late last week, as friends and family members worked to tear out flood-soaked drywall and wood framing. “This is the last thing I ever thought would happen.”

State officials know there are more people like Reed out there.

Barb Rush, Easton, daughter of Duane and Nancy Reed, sorts through her parents' salvageable belongings before loading them in a truck to be taken away in preparation for rising flood waters Sunday afternoon in Easton.

As a rule, flooding is not covered by regular homeowners insurance policies. Such coverage instead must be secured through the national Flood Insurance Program, administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Such flood policies provide coverage for up to $250,000 in damages and are available to any property owner who wants to buy it. While many consumers believe that such coverage is limited to properties in flood-prone areas, officials say, the reality is that anyone can buy a little piece of mind by enrolling in the program.

Sandy Praeger, Kansas insurance commissioner, recently discussed the program with her counterpart in Alabama, who watched as water rose to within 8 feet of his own home.

“He has flood insurance now,” Praeger said, noting that the Alabama commissioner is paying about $300 a year for the coverage.

Praeger said she was intrigued by the idea of launching a national program to provide insurance coverage for catastrophic events, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and even floods. Such a program likely could help more people afford flood insurance – a program with premiums consistent throughout the country – but also could force all homeowners to defray costs for rebuilding in especially disaster-prone areas.

“I think there needs to be some kind of national approach,” Praeger said. “I don’t think Kansans are going to want to pay for hurricanes, but, by the same token, folks in Florida don’t want to pay for our tornadoes.”

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But damage for tornadoes is covered under standard homeowners’ policies, Praeger said. Damage from flooding, as a rule, is not, leaving property owners to enroll in the National Flood Insurance Program or face the consequences.

“Some of this is personal responsibility,” she said. “If you’re in an area that is prone to flooding, you probably ought to plan for that.”

Reed said the water had never reached past the garbage containers in the backyard, at least not until a week ago.

Now, the flooding has forced the Reeds to take out a mortgage – something they never carried even when they added bedrooms to keep up with a growing family.

“I never borrowed money because I never wanted to lose my home,” she said. “Now I have a mortgage. I’m 67, and I’m pretty much starting over.”

The mortgage carries a new responsibility: Paying $460 a year for flood insurance.