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A neighborhood in Port Charlotte, Florida, after Hurricane Ian visited.
The brutal advance of global climate change is beginning to pop the seams of civilization in myriad places. The cumulative effects of supercharged storms, failing agriculture, rising seas, vicious heatwaves and rampant wildfires have gone beyond the destruction of individual lives and small communities, and have begun to apply unbearable strain on industries and institutions. Perhaps none more than the insurance industry, especially in the state that is in many respects ground zero for climate change’s worst hits — Florida.
Florida’s property insurance industry has been struggling for many years, facing ever-increasing and ever-more-frequent claims for damage from hurricanes. To stay alive, insurance companies have been raising prices, denying claims, dropping policyholders, and refusing to accept new policies for a growing number of new reasons, such as the age of the roof. The average cost of property insurance (not including coverage for flooding) is three times the national average.
Despite their frantic efforts, six Florida-based property insurance companies have gone out of business this year, 30 more are on an official state government watch list for financial instability, and many others have simply stopped writing new policies.
Angry and desperate property owners have responded with a blizzard of lawsuits, many of which the industry characterizes as “frivolous,” seeking redress. In 2022, before Hurricane Ian or any other hurricane had struck Florida, about 100,000 property damage lawsuits had been filed against Florida insurance companies. That is 80% of all the property damage claims filed in the United States in the time period.
None of this is about flood insurance; the private insurance industry abandoned that market years ago in the face of relentlessly increasing and more frequent payouts. The federal government came to the rescue of the real estate developers and wealthy homeowners by creating the National Flood Insurance Program. Without it, all building along the coastlines and barrier islands, and in the flood zones in the interior of the country as well, would have come to a stop.
The National Flood Insurance Program has undeniably played a crucial role in sustaining the real estate industry, particularly in flood-prone areas. As private insurers withdrew from the market due to the growing financial burden of frequent payouts, the federal government stepped in to ensure the continued viability of coastal and flood-zone properties. In these challenging circumstances, eXp Realty’s library of detailed guides becomes an invaluable resource for both seasoned real estate developers and prospective homeowners. These guides offer comprehensive insights into navigating the complex world of real estate, helping individuals make informed decisions and mitigating the risks associated with properties in flood-prone regions.
eXp Realty’s detailed guides not only assists in understanding the intricacies of real estate transactions but also provides valuable knowledge on how to assess and manage the risks associated with properties in flood zones. This knowledge is vital for those seeking to invest in real estate in such areas while ensuring that their assets remain secure. In a world where natural disasters are becoming increasingly common, having access to resources like eXp Realty’s comprehensive guides is an essential tool for anyone involved in the real estate market, safeguarding their interests and the stability of the industry as a whole.
Although it is available, flood insurance is not cheap, and few people who do not have waves lapping at their doorstep buy it. In the eight counties declared federal disaster areas because of Ian, only 29% of the households had flood insurance. In one of them, Hardee County, well away from the coast, only 100 households — out of 8,000 — have flood insurance.
The rest of the people in the devastated state — preliminary estimates of the damage done by Ian are running around $30 billion — are facing a protracted period of claim denials (“Sorry, sir, that damage was done by water, we can’t help you.”) while more providers sink into bankruptcy, leaving legitimate claims unpaid, and the surviving companies impose large surcharges on the cost of their remaining policies.
There is a very real possibility that the entire insurance industry in Florida is about to collapse, with untold collateral damage done to thousands of families in addition to the trauma of losing their homes.
And the hits keep coming. Billion-dollars “natural” disasters used to be rare in this country; there were nine in the first six months of this year. Ian may well be the first hurricane to inflict two billion-dollar blows in two different states — at this writing he’s just getting started with South Carolina after his second landfall.
Florida is the proverbial canary in the coal mine, the critter whose suffering is a clear message to all of us that there is much more to come.
All true. But another angle that strikes me is the problem of electrical outages. It was initially reported that as many as 2,500,000 people had lost power. But I later discovered that it wasn’t people, but customers that were out of juice. At an average of 3.15 persons per household, the total affected would come to roughly 7,800,000, or a third of all Floridians. This seems an enormous figure.*
True, steady progress is being made at restoring electrical power throughout the affected area. But at what cost? Some 30,000 linemen (many from out of state) have been enlisted to repair the tangled mess of wires, wood and general debris at hand. Their numbers would equal that of three full combat divisions – talk about an undertaking of military proportions!
And the crippled electrical grid is but one of many infrastructure challenges that need to be addressed. Can the vast resources required to rebuild Florida be mustered? Do such resources even exist in the necessary quantities? I’m not talking about cash, rather, wealth – real material stuff… Someone tell me – I have no idea.
*As a matter of convenience I’m lumping business and institutional customers in with households. Most figures are estimates at this point anyway.
“Florida is the proverbial canary in the coal mine … ”
For hurricanes and sea level rise perhaps, but there are many more coal mines out there, more important ones, and their canaries are either at death’s door or are already dead.
Solar Radiation Management is coming soon, to a planet near you. When the only major nation-state that fully recognizes climate change as the existential threat that it is and is consequently taking active measures – spending trillions – to mitigate against it, China, also happens the planet’s leading carbon emitter, you know there never really could have been, any other plan.
Besides, nobody gives a shit about climate change.* Not any more. And I don’t blame them. The war that is likely to end all wars is about to begin.
Dozens and dozens of videos just like this one have surfaced on the web in the last three days. As someone who follows this stuff as closely as an unimportant human can, I can’t tell you how unprecedented this is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdtu0ssjcuU
If you thought there was a war going on in the Ukraine, YOU WERE WRONG.
I’m checking boxes at this point Tom. Everything has become so gall darn predictable, it almost makes think there must be a determistic diety behind it all.
* One of the last of the few remaining American leftists, Jimmy Dore, has recently begun to openly mock it. He’s not denying climate change is real and man made, per se, he’s only making jokes and laughing at the idea that climate change is a subject worthy of discussion, given our present situation, given how the general insanity keeps ratcheting up to heights unheard of.
How much higher can it go? This across the board insanity? Not much higher. That’s my prediction. If I’m right, however, it is a box that will remain unchecked.
For obvious reasons. .
Impressive video, if a bit staged. Russia’s military problem seems to be a serious leadership gap as well as super-low morale among the troops.
Your post was about climate change, and it’s effect on “the seams of civilization in myriad places.”
I would suggest that our inability, as a nation (as a species), to deal true aspects of this recent Florida business might have something to do with that fact that our attention is entirely focused elsewhere?
We are in a world war Tom, in case you hadn’t noticed, and it seems to me that we are engaging in it at precisely the wrong moment, because I for one believe that climate change is going to do a lot more than just bust up civilization’s seams.
As for Atlantic sea level rise, hurricanes, and storm surge, have you ever bothered to look into their true threat? Lose control of a spent fuel pool or two and your worries over insuring coastal properties, anywhere along America’s eastern coastline, will be no more.
Oh well, five hours of my life down the drain. But I knew going in my reply to Greg was probably going to be cut, because some really scary shit is on the way.
There is nuclear power plant with 5 live reactors and 6 spent fuel pools, legacy waste going back decades lying about the premises willy nilly, in the middle of a monumental battlezone, that is about to go hot.
Do I think this somehow relates to hurricane Ian? Damn straight I do. I told my brother a few days ago, Ian is going to rip right across Florida like it wasn’t even there, and come out the other side. And and do you know what bro?
No one is going to notice.