As many people discovered in the wake of Hurricane Lane, flood waters can race through homes and businesses with a force that causes severe damage and financial loss — and not only those properties where flooding is a known hazard.

Further, many who assumed their hurricane insurance would cover losses from storm-related inundation have been slammed with the hard truth. It doesn’t.

Surely consumer awareness of these facts must be raised, with state regulators and lawmakers prodding the industry to keep policyholders better informed, at least.

There are other ugly parts of this picture. Prospects for what flood coverage there is — sold by the federal government — are uncertain. A November deadline to reauthorize even that program looms. Failing its renewal, that flood coverage would lapse.

Now, as Hurricane Olivia approaches for an anticipated close encounter with the islands, homeowners are more fearful than ever: Even if reduced to a tropical storm, Olivia is sure to dump another torrent on the saturated ground and debris-choked streams, the last thing the state needs.

Meteorologists are expecting a brief lull after Olivia, but a string of other storms are expected to march through the remaining months of what already seems a busy hurricane season.

And those who read last week’s report by Honolulu Star-Advertiser writer Kevin Dayton should know better than to rely too strongly on their own insurance policy to make them whole, where flooding is concerned.

That article chronicled the experience of people such as Virginia and David Aragon-Barnes, whose home in the Kaumana City section of Hilo took severe damage from Lane, requiring some $100,000 to fix. And that bill won’t be covered by the couple’s hurricane insurance.

As it happens, hurricane insurance may cover damage from wind-driven rain, but not from the clogged drainage canal that courses like a river into the structure, sometimes upheaving it, or from any number of unexpected storm scenarios. Such flood damage has to be covered by policies purchased through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program.

It can be expensive, and many homeowners forego that expense if they’re not in a known flood zone.

What they don’t realize, a State Farm representative told Dayton, is that being outside the zone won’t protect them. Flooding rain that pours through a hole in a structure might be covered by hurricane insurance, but the commonly occurring disaster of flood waters flowing downslope in a back door would cause damage that would land squarely on the homeowners to repair.

Congress has approved short extensions for the federal insurance program, but still has not tackled the hard work of overhauling it to make it more sustainable. The last extension, which President Donald Trump signed in July, expires Nov. 30.

With climate change and warmer seas have come more frequent and more turbulent storms carrying more moisture and leaving a deluge in their wake.

The reality is that the national program serves a need that, if anything, will grow more dire. The program needs to be fixed for the long term. Advocates for this change rightly observe that the math of flood-risk calculations has changed. That needs to be reformed to arrest the downward spiral of skyrocketing claims without the resources to cover them.

But that doesn’t eliminate the imperative on local leaders to take a hard look at the insurance products available through the private insurance marketplace as well.

According to the nonprofit Insurance Information Institute, “most homeowners insurers provide property coverage for all perils and liability but exclude hurricane insurance. Homeowners must purchase hurricane insurance separately from specialized companies.” And Hawaii is one of 19 hurricane-prone states where insurance companies can charge special deductibles for hurricane damage.

Is there something that can be done to improve the products offered to the Hawaii insurance consumer? State Sen. Roz Baker, who chairs one of the Legislature’s consumer-protection committees, believes it’s worth a look. She said the fallout from the past storms — and the ones that may be ahead — needs to settle to identify the range of coverage gaps.

But then legislators should convene an informational briefing, gathering industry representatives and state regulatory officials, to outline where the fixes might lie.

At the very least, the state should push for more plain-language requirements in the crafting of policy documents. Baker said this might be especially important for first-time buyers of the coverage.

Further, as the hurricane season approaches each year, companies should do better outreach to policyholders to ensure they’re aware of the limitations.

Hurricanes, and the flooding damage they cause, are facts of life here. There’s no cause for keeping people in the dark about the realities, and about the best means of protecting their property.