Many residents of the state are wondering why they’re paying more when it has been many years since the last catastrophe.
Florida hurricane insurance rates have been on the rise and while that may not have drawn much attention at one time, many residents of the state are wondering why they should have to pay more when it has been more than a decade since the damage left behind by Hurricane Wilma.
When Hurricane Wilma smashed through South Florida, devastation worth billions was left in its wake.
However, despite the fact that a major named storm hasn’t left a catastrophe in the state since 2005, the flood and hurricane insurance rates continue to increase. The important issue isn’t the nature of the storm – that is, it’s not necessarily a hurricane that is leading the premiums to rise. Instead, it is the fact that the state has continued to see flooding which has affected the property insurance market in the state. The cost of those damages has been continually passed down to business and homeowners.
Now, as the 2016 storm season begins, Florida’s hurricane insurance rates are rising again.
The 2016 hurricane season has been predicted to be an active one. Various prediction agencies and models have shown that there will likely be the same number or slightly more tropical storms, named storms and major hurricanes.
Robert Norberg of Arden Insurance explained that “Right now the trend had been we haven’t had storms in years but some of those policies are increasing and that is due to a lot of other factors. Not just hurricane damage but claims in general on the combined policies we call them. Those companies are taking rate increases all the time due to other claims.”
Therefore, while it may appear as though consumers in Florida are paying more for hurricane coverage despite the fact that there haven’t been damaging storms of that nature for over ten years, there is a great deal more that has worked its way into the calculation and other protections have been provided.
Moreover, the issue isn’t exclusive to Florida. Hurricane insurance rates went up by an average of 9 percent across the country in April when the National Flood Insurance Program took its next step to dig its way out of an enormous $24 billion debt that was first started by Katrina, that was worsened by Sandy and that has been kept back from significant progress due to a range of other flood-based emergencies.
