Reflections of Hurricane Hermine

So after 10 years of no major storm, Florida was guest to a relatively small and weak category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 55 mph and gusts up to 80 mph, Hermine. By comparison, Hurricane Andrew had sustained winds of 165 mph and pushed with many devastating tornadoes accompanying the storm. Furthering our "luck", it made landfall in St. Marks, a town of 300, avoiding major population areas such as Tampa Bay. Still, here is what the aftermath looks like:

~ 253,000 Floridians had their power knocked out
~ Coastal residents evacuated
~ over 10 inches of rain with storm
~ Hermine caused coastal Flooding in pasco, Hernando,Citrus Levy, Dixie, And taylor counties
~ 75 MPH winds all the way down in Pinellas county, 6 counties from landfall
~ state of emergency declared in 51 Florida Counties
~ One death
~Massive Sewage spills due to overwhelming sewer plants, causing spills thruought the West Coast of Florida and causing over 100,000 gallons of untreated sewage to be dumped into Tampa Bay alone.

All of this caused approximately 500 milion dollars in insured damage and economic damage exeeding 1 billion dollars.

Locally, We had houses flooded with up to a foot of water in Hernando Beach and Pine Island, Hudson and New Port Richey, and our office fielded several hundred call for wind damage, mostly minor.

What does this mean for Florida when we get a really big storm? The outlook isn't good for either property and business losses. few final points:

Flood is never covered by your homeowner insurance, you need a seperate policy,and as this huricane taught us, Flood damage can be much much worse than wind, and can accompany relatively minor storms.

One thing to definitely keep in mind is that during a named storm, including a tropical storm, your wind deductible changes to a percent of how much insurance your carry, usually 2%, 5%, or 10% with 2% the most common election made by our clients. If you are confused about this, call us for a review before it takes you by surprise. but as an example, if you insure your home for $250,000 and you have a 2% named storm deductible, all wind losses under 5000 will be your responsibility. This is a compromise, an agreement we have made to self insure small named storm losses as citizens of Florida to help keep our homeowner insurance industry active and engaged with us.