Rapping the facts about flooding

By JEFF HARRINGTON

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 18, 2001

It's not exactly Eminem, and this rap music isn't winning any MTV Music Awards.

But those hip folks at Bankers Insurance are dabbling in rap over the Internet when they're not peddling flood insurance, and they're winning awards for it.

The St. Petersburg company's retooled floodfacts.com won Best Web Site honors at the National Flood Conference last month, in part for the musical overtures used on its kids' section to teach about flooding.

The Flood Zone Rap (a k a The FZ Rap) on the site features verses such as:

From east coast to west, north to south

Floods can rise up -- ya better watch out!

Too much rain or melting snow

Can cause those rivers to overflow.

When young rain fans aren't memorizing lyrics, they can click around the site to play games with Flood Zone kids such as Sonny (who "changes with the weather but loves a challenge"), Susie Dew ("brave but hazardous") and Gusty ("the little bro' who always goes along for the ride"). Older kids might wind up in the more mundane fact-filled section for adults.

Bankers spokeswoman Elsa Houtz expects the flood site to educate consumers about flood risks and the need for buying flood insurance from companies such as . . . Bankers.

And as for the kids' section, why not catch those future premium payers early?

All right, one more verse:

When water's getting deep, it's good to know . . .

Where do floods come from? Where do they go?

If it's a mystery to you, let's pop the lid

And soon you'll learn to be a Flood Zone kid."

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