Bay Shore Home Insurance: One ZIP Code, Two Very Different Flood Markets

One ZIP number, two flood markets

Bay Shore's own ZIP code, 11706, is not just the mainland hamlet on the Great South Bay. Per the Bay Shore Post Office's own USPS service record, the same ZIP also covers Kismet, Saltaire, Fair Harbor, Dunewood, and Point O'Woods, Fire Island communities with no year-round road of their own. Residents reach them by ferry from the terminal at 99 Maple Ave, or on foot via Robert Moses State Park. Kismet, the westernmost of the group, sits at 3 feet of elevation.

That matters because every NFIP claim from those barrier-beach communities counts toward the same ZIP 11706 total as mainland Bay Shore's claims: 2,045 on record, $79.0M paid. A live FEMA NFHL query of the ferry-served Fire Island section near Kismet returned 16 flood hazard polygons, and every one was a mandatory-purchase AE or VE zone, none in the non-mandatory X zone. The same query run against a mainland Bay Shore bounding box returned 30 polygons with a real mix: 12 in the non-mandatory X zone, 17 mandatory. A single ZIP-level number can average together two places with very different actual exposure.

Brightwaters, next door

Immediately west of Bay Shore sits Brightwaters, a separately incorporated village since 1916, with its own ZIP code (11718) and under a square mile of land split across a Canal District, a Lakes District, and the Wohseepee Park District, threaded by the Brightwaters Canal and four lakes. It is also a wealthier village on paper: $768,600 median home value against mainland Bay Shore's $492,200, per Census ACS 2024 5-year.

None of that shows up in its flood claims history. Brightwaters' ZIP recorded 142 NFIP claims, $4.3M paid, about 14.4 times fewer than Bay Shore's ZIP. A live NFHL query of Brightwaters' own footprint found just 5 polygons: 2 non-mandatory X, 2 AE, 1 A. It's the same pattern already found between Oyster Bay hamlet and Bayville, and between the three ZIPs sharing the Babylon name: neighboring places, very different flood records. Confirm your specific ZIP rather than assuming a neighboring number applies to you.

What Sandy did here

Sandy struck on October 29, 2012. USGS recorded record coastal flooding in western Great South Bay along southern Suffolk County, with peak water levels at gauge sites there exceeding FEMA's 100-year stillwater elevations and surpassing every previously documented record at those sites. Our claims data lines up: 1,157 of ZIP 11706's 2,045 recorded claims, and 71 of Brightwaters' 142, came from that single year.

Sandy also tore a new breach through Fire Island, at Old Inlet, well east of the Kismet, Saltaire, and Fair Harbor section covered by this page. Per the National Park Service, that breach stayed open for nearly 12 years before closing naturally in 2024. Hurricane Irene the year before drove a similar pattern of surge across the wider south shore.

What this means for your policy

Flood, and it depends heavily on which half of the ZIP you're in. A homeowners policy excludes flood damage everywhere on Long Island. In the mapped AE and VE zones, a separate NFIP or private policy is mandatory with a federally backed mortgage. If you're on Fire Island, treat that as close to certain given what our query found; on the mainland, confirm your own parcel rather than reading the ZIP-wide number as your answer. Start with our flood insurance guide.

Wind, everywhere. Expect a percentage hurricane deductible of 1% to 5% of your dwelling limit, under the uniform statewide trigger New York adopted in February 2026. Our hurricane deductible guide works through the math by home value.

If the market says no. Mainland waterfront blocks likely fall inside the C-MAP coastal band that applies across the south shore, with the program's other prerequisites and no guarantee of placement. NYPIUA backstops Suffolk County with its 2% hurricane deductible. A non-renewal notice starts a clock. Buying here, on the mainland or the barrier beach? Run the pre-offer insurance checklist first.

Carriers. Appetite varies by block, elevation, and claims history, and it shifts often. We do not publish carrier lists because they go stale. An independent agent who writes the south shore, including Fire Island, regularly can tell you what is available for your specific address.

Bay Shore and Brightwaters by the numbers