A Yes or A No

I usually go through the routine of winterizing the house before the start of every winter season. Despite this, I usually end up with one or two damaged water houses or leaky outside faucets. No big deal. Usually involves minor repair such as replacing washers. So I am used to that. What does not normally occur are leaky faucets inside the house during what is a warmer than normal winter. This tells me the problems have nothing to do with the weather.

A short background

There are days when I am not overwhelmed by daily or weekly activities that I may just spend a couple of minutes, hours just browsing through stores like BestBuy or The Home Depot. During one of these visits, I spied on a device that detects water leaks. A water leak alarm. I thought back then that since I have always gone to the basement, I did not really need this. Any flooding should be handled by the sump pump. Besides, since I live in a "once in a hundred year" flood zone up the side of a hill, when would the occasion for a flood occur?

Well a while back I mentioned that I had a faucet leak issue occur in the basement. I had to tighten that faucet really good to be able schedule a repair for the coming weekend. The next day, while again working in the basement, I heard what sounded like water in the shower. I quickly got up, went into the laundry room and there it was, the brass water Y-valve to the washing machine had sink broke, literally there was a crack on it. I quickly shut-off the valve and now had two items to work on during the weekend. This makes me wonder if this latest leak had just happened, or was it something I just missed a couple of days earlier? And this is not the first time this has happened. Barely three years ago the brass y-valve had also gone bad.

The Issue

So now the issue is this. On all occasions, I had been lucky enough to be in the basement when the problems occurred, the sump pump also worked. Now what if I didn't go down the basement for a few days, or the pump failed to work, what would have happened? Would potential damages be covered by regular home insurance or should I get flood insurance? Because of my location, flood insurance would not make sense. Maybe, I should invest $12.00 - $40.00 on a water leak alarm instead? What do you think?