Thousands of Sacramento homeowners have let their flood insurance policies lapse, possibly because of the city's large number of home foreclosures, officials said.

Jessica Hess, spokeswoman for the city's Utilities Department, said the city plans to launch an educational campaign reminding residents that they are at risk, despite the lack of recent floods.

Hess said a report provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency shows that 2,000 of the 51,000 city homeowners who carried flood insurance in August 2009 have since dropped their policies.

The federal government requires homeowners in special flood hazard areas such as the Natomas area to carry flood insurance.

But any area protected by a levee is considered to be in a floodplain, and that includes most of the city, Hess said.

The report did not identify specific areas of the city in which policies have been dropped, and Hess said there are a number of possible reasons for the decline in coverage.

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