From Scientific American: Hurricane Irma: Florida’s Overdevelopment Has Created a Ticking Time Bomb. Disaster risk expert says intense population growth and urban coastal development have created a huge danger.
The title is a bit dramatic, but the message is one we are seeing in many articles these days. Both FL coastal cities and Houston have been growing with inadequate attention to risk.
The insurance issues in FL are quite different from those in TX. See this article from the NYTimes: Irma May Force Florida Insurers to Turn to Deeper Pockets
When the storm is over and the streets are safe again, Floridians will be checking what has become of their homes. They may also want to check on their insurers.
The big national carriers like State Farm and Allstate pulled out of Florida’s homeowners’ market years ago, citing catastrophic risks and unhelpful state regulators. Those departures left a vacuum that the state filled, initially, with a state-owned insurer, Citizens Property Insurance. Eventually, the state offered incentives to coax some brave new insurers into the market.As a result, all that may seem to stand between Florida’s homeowners and potential ruin is one state-owned insurer and dozens of relatively little-known companies that do all or most of their business in the state. They all have the benefit of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, which, with no major storms in the past 12 years, has $17 billion at the ready — a sum that may not be nearly enough.
Surviving A Big Storm Doesn’t Mean The Trauma Is Over.
Thanks to Chris Jones for the citation.
From the website How Stuff Works: Why Some People Choose to Shelter In Place
The Diva was quoted by the author.
